"It's a bureaucratic and a bookkeeper's budget that primarily wants to satisfy the rules of the International Monetary Fund, the local government units in which the HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) is in power, and the HDZ's coalition partners, in particular the Pensioners' Party, which will be quite difficult," Dragica Zgrebec told a press briefing at SDP headquarters.
Zgrebec said that agriculture was a major stumbling block in Croatia's membership talks with the European Union and that too little was being invested in this sector, particularly in a previously announced irrigation programme, orchards and vineyards. She added that in 2006 the war-affected areas, Adriatic islands and mountainous areas would receive as much money as they had or less.
SDP President Ivica Racan said that Croatia was wasting its time due to the present government's policy and that the next government would have to make up for the lost time. "Reform or restructuring of the economy is not being implemented and there is a danger that we might again blame the EU for imposing restrictions on us," he said.
Mato Crkvenac said that despite the fact that the foreign debt growth rate had been reduced the foreign debt had increased from 19.8 billion euros in 2003 to 24 billion in 2005, with the domestic debt rising by 20 billion kuna. He added that the government had brought itself into a situation to be too dependent on tourism.
Ljubo Jurcic noted that the economic growth rate, which had been on the rise from 1999 to 2002, was now seeing a steady decline, which he said would lead to economic stagnation.
The government again took the line of least resistance, because the proposed budget is a mere copy of this year's budget with little cosmetic work, which will result in an accelerated and bad privatisation and a reduction of economic wealth, Jurcic said.
Slavko Linic sees the possibility for increasing the growth rate in increasing investment, primarily in the energy sector and transport infrastructure, saying that such investment does not place a direct burden on the national budget and that it produced profit.
"If the government does not invest in energy and infrastructure, shipbuilding, railways and agriculture, neither will the private sector invest in development but will pay out dividends," he said.
The SDP leaders believe that the present government policy contributes to a widening gap between the rich and the poor and that the government "has turned on the automatic pilot" in running the state.