The Croatian Association of Trade Unions (HUS) on Friday accused the government of selling off the Croatia Osiguranje (CO) insurer and the Hrvatska Postanska Banka (HPB) postal bank and leasing the motorways to cushion the consequences of its bad policies that have reduced a third of the population to poverty.
"We will respond in the autumn with protest rallies and will collect signatures for a referendum where people would say whether they support the lease of the motorways and the sale of the state-owned companies," HUS leader Ozren Matijasevic told a press conference in Zagreb.
HUS said that the government was behaving like an official receiver instead of planning how to get the country out of the recession.
By selling HPB and CO, Croatia will get about three billion kuna which it will use to patch up the budget holes. It will renounce further benefits from these companies, even though budget revenues can be increased only through investment, HUS said.
