Croatian President Ivo Josipovic has said that he does not see that there is a serious crisis in the ruling coalition but rather certain misunderstandings among coalition partners, which had also occurred in previous cabinets.
"I don't see a serious crisis of the government. I can see certain misunderstandings in the coalition, which we witnessed previously in coalitions in the former cabinet and the one before that," the head of state said on Zagreb after he had received the European Union's Enlargement Commissioner Stefan Fuele on Monday.
"This (misunderstanding) is something to which we should be accustomed, we should be accustomed to the fact that various views exist and that there are successful and less successful agreements," Josipovic said in reference to interpretations of his statement to the Croatian Television on Sunday night about the conflicts between the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Croatian People's Party (HNS) over the plan to tax real estate.
Josipovic said that somebody interpreted his statement with words he had not used.
In this context Josipovic said he did not think that the governing coalition was undermined.
As for the tax policy, Josipovic said that that taxes must be of a wide range and that he hoped that not only real estate but also other forms of property would be taxed in the next stage.
He said that one should be guided by the principle of fair taxes and higher taxes on the wealthier.
The president said that it was now perhaps time to formulate a different, comprehensive tax system.
