Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said in parliament on Wednesday that shares of the Croatia Osiguranje (CO) insurance company were not sold but transferred to the Pensioners' Fund and that the state remained the majority owner with a 51 percent stake.
"The shares were transferred to pay this year's instalment of the government's debt to pensioners of 820 million kuna," Kosor said during Question Time while answering a question from Damir Kajin of the Istrian Democratic Party (IDS), who wanted to know why CO was being sold.
Kajin expressed concern that CO was being set for sale to a monopoly holder in Croatia, wondering who could guarantee that CO would not be taken over one day.
Social Democrat Nada Cavlovic Smiljanec wanted to know why the average pension allowance had dropped from 48 to 39 percent of the average salary, to which Kosor responded by saying that the Social Democrats (SDP) should tell citizens why they had told them that the government did not owe anything to pensioners.
She again called on the Social Democrats to explain why in 2001 they had reduced the rights of 100-percent disabled war veterans by 60 percent.
