Pero Kovacevic of the HSP said the GDP growth was based on spending and external borrowing and that the external debt had reached USD50 billion.
Krunoslav Markovinovic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) said the HSP had decided against supporting the draft budget as initially announced out of revenge because HSP leader Anto Djapic said yesterday the party would not support it unless the HDZ renounced its position on extending the detention of Branimir Glavas, an independent MP suspected of war crimes.
Zeljko Pecek of the HSS, too, pointed to the disproportion of GDP and the external debt, saying the state's debt would continue to grow. He also criticised the government for not having enough courage in projecting the budgetary deficit.
Pecek said Croatia should follow the example of some of its neighbours, which directed their deficits, higher than the European average, into development.
Commenting on announcements that the draft budget envisaged more funds for science and education, he said "we will evidently create a society of knowledge without professors and teachers, who are on strike as of today".
Damir Kajin of the IDS said the national budget had gone up four and a half times in the past 13 years while GDP had grown only 2.7 per cent, which he said proved that the state "is spending a lot and manufacturing and developing a little."
Commenting on announcements of fiscal decentralisation, he said that those regions that had so far contributed to the budget the most would be left without significant funds.