Croatian President Ivo Josipovic told Nova TV commercial television on Friday evening that given high unemployment and low production it was high time to see what the incumbent government had done so far but also to assess where the entire Croatian society and the economy were going.
After a year and a half in power, the government can no longer blame its predecessor and the omissions the previous government had made. The number of the unemployed and the fact that our production went down are not good indicators, Josipovic said in an interview with Nova TV.
In my opinion, the question whether the government is taking the right path is less important than the question where our society and the economy are going, Josipovic said.
Asked to comment on writing off interest rates on tax debt, Josipovic said this was a good move given that a large number of citizens were no longer able to service their debts, including tax debts.
Commenting on the announced introduction of real estate tax, the president said he in principle was in favour of property taxes, adding however that this issue needed to be viewed as part of the tax reform.
Asked to comment on sanctions against Social Democrats over the party's late financial report, Josipovic said it was not the same thing if the report is late a day, five month or if it is not submitted at all. He however, declined to say whether or not it was politically fair for the ruling party to now change the law on financing political activities and election campaign.
Asked if he would run at the next presidential election, Josipovic said should he still enjoy the public support, it would be logical to run.
Commenting on his possible meeting with Serbian President Tomislav Nikolic, Josipovic said the time had not yet come for that, because he would like to see the issue of the missing persons resolved prior to that.
Commenting on Nikolic's speech before the United National General Assembly, Josipovic said at the session "our neighbours scored their own goal". All countries have seen this session as abuse of office by the president of the UN GA (Serbian diplomat Vuk Jeremic,) Josipovic said. "Unbalanced speeches aimed at reducing history to the suffering of only one people are not good. I believe the entire session was only detrimental to Serbia," Josipovic said.
