A member of Parliament and vice-president of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS), Damir Kajin, said at a news conference in Pula on Sunday that institutions in the country were falling apart and that democracy was not functioning.
Kajin said the latest case confirming his claims was Social Democrat MP Zeljko Jovanovic's being stripped of immunity following a defamation lawsuit filed against him by the ruling HDZ party.
"What is happening now in Croatia is the abuse of the police, the financial system and, I fear, of the judiciary. (Former Prime Minister) Ivo Sanader is a choirboy compared to the team he's left behind. Compared to them, he is a super democrat," Kajin said.
"If individuals in state institutions are ready to follow the HDZ, they should know that they must share the HDZ's fate after the elections are lost," Kajin said, adding that those individuals, whom he would not name, should be prepared to leave.
He criticised Health Minister Darko Milinovic for increasing salaries in health care for 20,000 out of 70,000 workers, which he said would cost an additional 500 million kuna to be secured in the 2012 budget.
The IDS official said that the period until June 2012 would be the most difficult period in terms of the economy since 1995.
Dozens of thousands of jobs and as many small businesses will be at stake, he said, adding that the public debt in 2011 had increased from 47 percent of GDP to 51 percent, and that in 2012 the state would have to pay a EUR 17.2 billion foreign debt instalment.
Kajin also said that the pension insurance system had collapsed and that the number of pensioners in six counties exceeded the number of workers.
