Ten unions have announced a protest for October 11 because of collective bargaining has failed. Milanovic pledged that he would raise the salaries of those in education first as soon as that was possible.

"We quarreled with a small number of unions over Christmas bonuses and holiday cash grants. When more than 300,000 people are jobless, when I assume the political responsibility and make a promise, and I haven't made it to anyone else, they don't want to sign the collective agreement. I think that's not good," he said. "People, let's be patient a year or two."

Milanovic called some other unions "unfair" for saying that the Gredelj company, which recently filed for bankruptcy, was deliberately shut down. "We haven't shut it down. It will continue to work, it's a new factory."

He went on to say that it was unnecessary to observe Statehood Day because the beginning of the Constitution says that Croatia's statehood began in the seventh century. "In my opinion, independence is a perfecting of that state-building thread."

"That's why Independence Day should be celebrated and we should decide which day is that," Milanovic said, adding that the Croatian parliament severed ties with Yugoslavia on 25 June 1991 but the decision was put under a three-month moratorium and finalised on October 8, when parliament adopted "the definitive, irrevocable, in some way convalidated decision in relation to the one from June and, as far as we are concerned, we have been independent since then."

With regard to upcoming local elections, Milanovic said "the incumbent government is usually punished in a crisis." He said he was ready for that but that he believed he would win, announcing that his Social Democratic Party (SDP) would cooperate with the Croatian People's Party (HNS) again even though the latter's rating was falling.

"I'm very satisfied with the cooperation with the HNS in the government. It's a party that's ideologically very close to the SDP."

Milanovic said he was not afraid of a coalition being formed against the ruling coalition by the president of the strongest opposition HDZ party, Tomislav Karamarko. "It's all a legitimate political match. The opposition's job is to control and criticise the government, not the other way round. I'm not afraid."

Wednesday will see the release of a European Commission monitoring report which says that Croatia generally meets its European Union membership criteria.

"The report is actually good, apart from general objections against the judiciary that you could make against any state. Against us perhaps more than others but less than against third ones. I'm satisfied with the rest. It seems they recognise that we have a serious government which runs the state in a consolidated manner and that, partly thanks to our own ability and partly to luck, we are in a better position than some countries around us, except Austria, which is in a league of its own."

The report mentions the issue of the shipyards. Milanovic said a contract on Brodosplit would be signed "very soon" but would not be specific. It will be "within the deadlines the EU understands as normal deadlines," he added.