ZAGREB, October 5, 2020 - SDP leader Pedja Grbin has said that he will borrow what he considers the best traits of his predecessors - Ivica Racan's calmness, Zoran Milanovic's directness and Davor Bernardic's perseverance but that he will not repeat their mistakes regarding lack of communication with party colleagues.

In an interview with national broadcasters on Sunday, the newly-elected leader of the Social Democratic Party said that it was his predecessors' character qualities and communication with party members that he planned to build the new SDP on, which would then be able to deal with problems bothering Croatian citizens.

Grbin noted that the public in Croatia discussed trivial topics instead of policies and what was going on in the country.

He said in an interview with RTL that the government had not envisaged a new distraint law for next year, that a national development strategy, the main document for the absorption of money from EU funds, was not being worked on, and in that context he said that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic should start doing his job.

I haven't seen Milanovic's message of congratulation

Asked if he had spoken with President Zoran Milanovic and if Milanovic had congratulated him on his election as the SDP leader, Grbin said that he had not noticed Milanovic's message, adding that Milanovic had the right to criticism but that unnecessary conflicts were another thing.

Grbin said he did not expect the SDP parliamentary group to oppose him despite the fact that there would be some changes in its work.

The SDP parliamentary group should be led by the party president while other personnel matters related to the group will be discussed by the party presidency first, said Grbin.

In an interview with the HTV public broadcaster, Grbin said that the priority for the coming elections in Zagreb would be to gather the entire civic and left camp, negotiate and agree on how to run in local elections, set for next year.

He said that residents of Zagreb were at the moment less interested in the name of the left camp's candidate for Zagreb mayor than in fighting corruption in the capital. 

Commenting on the JANAF corruption scandal, Grbin said in his interview with RTL that there was suspicion that staff at the Office of the Chief State Prosecutor were involved in the case, noting that there were constant information leaks.

"If this society does not start to change, the situation won't get better," he said, noting that the ruling HDZ party lacked the will to initiate changes.

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ZAGREB, December 31, 2019 - In the last 20 years Croatia's debt has increased sixfold, HRK 50 billion kuna to nearly 300 billion, the Večernji List daily says in its Tuesday edition, citing figures that show that the HDZ government of Ivo Sanader set the record in borrowing while the most reforms were carried out by the government led by Social Democrat Ivica Račan.

The political rise of Zoran Milanović has refuelled debates about his government having been the most spendthrift. The statistics, however, show a different thing.

The leader in terms of borrowing was the HDZ government led by Ivo Sanader and his successor Jadranka Kosor, during whose four-year term (2008-2011) public debt rose by 95 billion kuna, more than doubling in the two terms, says Večernji List.

Milanović's government increased the debt by around 73 billion kuna, Račan's by around 40 billion and Plenković's by around 15 billion.

Economists, however, warn that adding up public debt is like comparing apples and oranges.

"Macroeconomically, we are talking about different environments. It would be more sensible to judge reforms and their impact on long-term growth," says Željko Lovrinčević of the Institute of Economics.

"The term of the Ivo Sanader government was a period when loans were sought for infrastructure projects that were financed by the Croatian state, and there were both rational and irrational investments," said Lovrinčević.

Milanović's government led the country during the period of a very deep financial crisis, when deficits were a way to maintain the country's financial system and prevent complete chaos.

"It was a period of record-high interest rates, unlike the current situation, with artificially created low interest rates. The two periods are almost incomparable, in terms of both sources of financing and capital prices," said Lovrinčević.

Sanader and Milanović did not have at their disposal EU funds available to the incumbent government, which is macroeconomically the most successful one, if the short term of PM Tihomir Orešković is disregarded, as public debt has been falling as measured by its share in GDP, however, neither Sanader nor Milanović performed well in terms of structural reforms.

"Running the country was most difficult during the term of the Ivica Račan government, it was a heterogeneous coalition that led the country in a transition from a semi-military model of state functioning to a civilian economy. That is when most progress was made in structural reforms," Lovrinčević believes.

Lovrinčević previously compared growth rates in Croatia with rates in other transition countries behind which Croatia lagged by 30%.

Paradoxically, but Croatia lagged the most behind during the term of the first Ivo Sanader government, from 2004 to 2007, when economic growth was 14% lower than in other transition countries, unlike the most successful, Ivica Račan government, during whose term the national economy lagged behind by 2%.

Račan's government raised GDP by around 18% during its term and at the time Croatia's economy grew faster than the economies of the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary and Slovenia, which from today's perspective looks like science fiction, says Večernji List.

More economic news can be found in the Business section.

ZAGREB, April 29, 2018 - The opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Sunday marked the death anniversary of its first president and Croatia's prime minister from 2000 to 2003, Ivica Račan.