Speaking about the government's investment plan and growth this year, First Deputy Prime Minister Radimir Cacic said on Thursday Croatia would either be in full swing by September or he would no longer be part of the government.
There is no plan B, this must be done, Cacic said on Nova TV.
He said Croatia was in such a deep crisis that the only way out was in aggressive growth, optimism and employment.
Responding to a question from the host, Cacic said PM Zoran Milanovic fully supported his projects.
Cacic said that in order to achieve those goals, the government must eliminate those who were an obstacle in the administration and bring people who were "fully committed to the government's programme." He added that the situation in public companies was a bigger problem than in the state administration.
Commenting on the government's decision to return politicians to the supervisory and management boards of public companies, Cacic said that over the past eight years, the previous government insisted on inviting applications for supervisory board members.
"It's much smarter for the government to say, 'We have been elected, we are the executive authority, our job is to pull the country of the crisis,' and for this we need both experts and people fully committed to the task they have been given."
Cacic said such an approach was much more honest and that if those appointed did not live up to the trust they had been given, they would be the first to go.
Asked if the Labour Act amendments should include more than just provisions on collective agreements, Cacic said collective agreements were not the only problem.
"That will happen but it's not enough... Employers hire exclusively fixed-term workers and it's virtually impossible to fire a worker," he said, adding that the Labour Act amendments should acknowledge the civilisation level of workers' security.
