Parliamentary opposition parties on Friday criticised the government's plan to buy a new fleet of cars, accusing it of lack of care and insensitivity towards an increasingly impoverished population.
Their criticisms were prompted by media reports saying that the Central Public Procurement Office had advertised for the purchase of 1,742 vehicles, worth a total of HRK 265.5 million, through a leasing scheme.
"There's no money, they are cutting wages, but they are wasting money again. (...) Milanovic says that democracy costs. But democracy doesn't have to be expensive, even in these difficult times we can be rational, it is our obligation," the head of the strongest opposition party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Tomislav Karamarko, told reporters when asked for a comment.
"It's an autistic move. Why is the government scoring own goals every day? I expect the Prime Minister to apologise for this," Nikola Vuljanovic of the Labour Party said. "The Prime Minister has said that austerity is over, which in this case means that they have decided to help a foreign automobile industry," his party boss, Dragutin Lesar, quipped.
When asked if he thought this was the right time for purchasing new cars, the ruling Social Democratic Party's (SDP) Deputy Speaker of Parliament, Nenad Stazic, said that the right time is when old cars need to be replaced, "unless we want to drive vintage cars."
