Nevertheless, some representatives of disgruntled workers showed up for the celebration - members of the Croatian Union of the Unemployed (SNH), the Democratic Party of Women (DSZ) and former employees of the bankrupt textile factory Kamensko.

Carrying banners that read "We want to work, no more empty promises", they distributed leaflets to citizens calling for the establishment of an investment fund for the unemployed which would invest in manufacturing and trades in order to save existing jobs and create new ones. They suggested imposing a 15-percent deduction on net salaries of members of Parliament, state officials and Croatian observers in the European Parliament as one of the ways to raise money for the fund.

At the entrance to the park, Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic was distributing red carnations and free bean broth meals to visiting citizens.

Commenting on the latest increases in prices of electricity and natural gas and growing unemployment figures, Bandic said that the burden of the crisis would have to be distributed as evenly as possible and that citizens would be able to bear it if all showed solidarity with one another.

A delegation of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) branch in Zagreb, consisting of branch president Davor Bernardic, Labour Minister Mirando Mrsic, and Entrepreneurship and Trades Minister Gordan Maras, too, attended the celebration at Maksimir.

Members of the Croatian Labour Party attending the celebration had a stand in the park, from where they called on citizens to fill in a questionnaire that is part of the party's drive called "Ask the Government".

Four trade union federations - the SSSH, the NHS, the HUS and the URSH - staged a protest rally for International Workers' Day in the city's central Ban Jelacic Square instead of in Maksimir as was earlier the case.

International Workers' Day was also marked in Osijek, Split and Pula, with local union representatives warning that many people were unemployed and that many worked without pay and threatening to give the government "a red card" next year if the situation did not improve.