The Croatian parliament on Monday published on its web site a list of 46 members of the previous, sixth parliament who applied to be issued a certificate on the duration of their term as MP based on which they can request activation of their pension as MPs, Parliament Speaker Boris Sprem said in an interview on Croatian Radio on Monday.
The 46 MPs include seven who were elected also to the new, seventh parliament - Vladimir Seks, Stjepan Milinkovic, Ivanka Roksandic and Ana Lovrin of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ); Boro Grubisic of the HDSSB party; and minority MPs Denes Soja and Furio Radin.
Sprem said that he agreed with the chair of the parliamentary Committee on Elections and Appointments, Social Democrat Sime Lucin, to meet repeated requests from the press to publish the names of MPs who had requested to be issued certificates on the duration of their term as MPs, which he said did not have to mean that they had activated their pensions as MPs.
Asked why they did so, particularly MPs who activated their pensions for only one day, only to resume their duties as MPs in the new parliament, Sprem said he believed they wanted to "make it sure that they would eventually get their pensions."
"All those who in this term request activation of their pension, be it for only one day, will exercise that right, and I leave it to citizens who elect... parliamentary deputies to decide for themselves what this is about," Sprem said.
He said that he expected the parliament to adopt, at its first session to start next week, a law abolishing so-called privileged pensions of members of Parliament, of the government and of Constitutional Court judges.
He said that by adopting the law the Kukuriku coalition would fulfil one of its election promises - making conditions for obtaining so-called privileged pensions the same as those all other citizens have to meet in order to retire.
Asked if he expected the public to show understanding for restrictions announced by the government, including an increase in the VAT rate and introduction of property tax, Sprem said he expected the public to support all measures that would result in improvement, in a relatively short time and following cuts that would not be painful.
Asked to comment on announcements from the now opposition HDZ party that it would raise hell already during Question Time at the first session of the new parliament, Sprem said that "those who have caused the most problems in the country should not be making threats, but rather help."
