Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Thursday that public outcry against his cabinet's plan to lease motorways for the purpose of monetising the public debt was being instigated by interest groups which he accused of wanting to maintain a status quo while his government "is working for public interest and wants to conclude a deal good for Croatia".
Monetisation of state motorways' debt is "a rational and prudent story" on which we will embark only after we check everything, Milanovic said at the start of the meeting of his cabinet while some 200 unionists were protesting outside the government building against the proposed monetisation through the lease of state-owned highways.
In the event of the motorway lease Croatian citizens will drive on them under the same conditions as they do now, the premier said commenting on opponents' fears that road tolls will go up if the motorways are run by private concessionaires.
The premier said his cabinet catered for the interests of 4.5 million Croatians while protests against monetisation were in the interest of "a thousand or two thousand people".
He also promised that any lease for monetising would be greenlighted only after a well-prepared agreement.
He said that protagonists in this job could be global corporations and with a possibility for Croatian pensions' funds to be engaged in all that.
Milanovic recalled that Croatians already use motorways outside the state-run "Hrvatske Autoceste " (HAC) motorway operator, such as the Zagreb-Macelj section or sections in Istria and that there are no problems.
He reiterated that such a solution for solving public debt was not ideal but was viable.
