Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor on Tuesday expressed satisfaction with the adoption of a state budget for 2011 in the Croatian parliament, adding that she regretted that the Opposition did not back the budget and that their leaving the session was a sign of lack of courage and vision.
This budget was adopted with a particularly high number of votes (83), Kosor told reporters in parliament after the voting, adding that she and her colleagues in the government were satisfied.
"I am sorry that the opposition parties, led by the Social Democrats (SDP), have ignored all of our efforts," Kosor said, adding that it was not true that the opposition had proposed any changes.
"They did not make any concrete proposals, they only criticised the draft budget and I simply can't understand that the SDP leader and his parliamentary group are not in parliament today. This is their place of work, this is where they receive their parliamentary salaries and this job must be done," Kosor said.
"As you may know, they are somewhere else, somewhere where ministerial seats are being discussed, somewhere where they are discussing possibilities of returning back to power and not about Croatia's present, the fight against corruption or overcoming the crisis," Kosor said alluding to today's meeting of the so-called opposition group from Kastav.
Kosor said it was incomprehensible that the opposition did not adopt the budget despite the frozen expenses and that it did not back the law on fiscal responsibility which, according to the PM, is being adopted for the first time and which brings order at all levels - from the government and its ministries to local self-government units.
"They do not have the strength and courage for that and they clearly have no vision," Kosor said, adding that the workplace of every deputy was in parliament.
"Imagine a worker in the factory, a nurse or a teacher in a restaurant during their working hours," Kosor sasid.
The PM declined to say if there would be a government reshuffle now that the budget was adopted.
"I have already said, and I am sticking to my statement, that once we adopt the budget we will get together and adopt some decisions that are aimed at strengthening the government and all potentials and sources, so that we could implement a large portion of the investment projects that we have previously announced," she added.
She dismissed as untrue statements by opposition deputies that the budget did not foresee the payment of salaries and pensions in 2011.
Asked to comment on the fact that independent deputy Ivo Sanader supported the budget, PM Kosor said this was absolutely irrelevant.
