Commenting on the first 100 days of the work of the new government, the president of the opposition Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Jadranka Kosor, said the government could not be given a passing grade.
The government did not start good and used those 100 days because it adopted decisions with long-term consequences - it increased the VAT rate by two percent which is a huge burden for citizens already living on the brink of poverty, notably small and medium-sized entrepreneurs, Kosor said. She added that adopting a fragile budget was another wrong move by the government, adding that this would soon be confirmed through a budget revision.
She criticised the government for easily announcing an increase of the prices of gas and power, adding that the government clearly had no understanding of the situation we live in. There is no need for drastic price hikes, and we can only imagine how this will reflect on the standard of living, Kosor said.
Kosor said that by politicising the state administration sector and appointing politically favourable people to supervisory and managing boards, the government was slowly but surely halting Croatia's EU path.
It is possible that Croatia's EU entry date, scheduled for 1 July 2013, will be postponed, we have to work on the ratification of Croatia's EU Accession Treaty in EU member states and with a million new issues we will not manage to do that, Kosor stressed.
