Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic on Thursday said that he supported the right to be unsatisfied and to protest but he said the government will not change its course and that "there is no way I will push the country into debt bondage".
At a meeting of his cabinet, the PM recalled that currently 365,000 were registered as unemployed but that the fundamental problem was not unemployment but that too few people in Croatia were working.
"Our responsibility in this situation is enormous. I respect and, in a way, support the right to be unsatisfied and to protest because it is good to hear what the people think. It is good to hear proposals but for me at the moment there is no alternative to what we are doing. The course we have taken is such and there is no way, and I'm sure you all agree, that we will push this country into debt slavery and to the edge of a chasm in order to function in the manner some people are used to functioning in Croatia", said Milanovic.
He underscored that as prime minister he would fight for that course but when he will no longer be that, he would do so in some other "legitimate and democratic manner".
"I believe in that... Our task is to give a job to those who do not have one and to secure working conditions but also to secure stability and predictability to those who are working", the PM said and added that he could not "guarantee anyone absolute security, not even himself". "If I guarantee myself security then I have to take something from whoever is next to me and we are all part of the same society so I call for patience, work and awareness that some things need to change."
Ahead of the meeting, other cabinet members too rejected union calls from May Day's protest rallies on Wednesday that it was necessary for the government to change its course.
First Deputy Prime Minister Vesna Pusic said that she was not perturbed by the union messages.
"We have our programme and we will achieve it. This is not a political alternative, this is union activity with varied messages but it is our job to do what we have set out to", Pusic said.
"The message to the unions is quite clear - set up a political party, compete and prove that you are better, but I don't think you are", Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grcic commented.
Finance Minister Slavko Linic accused the unions of "riding two horses at the same time". They need to go into politics and then it would be easier to achieve what they are talking about, Linic added.
