Senior party officials Mato Crkvenac, Dragica Zgrebec, Davorko Vidovic, Marija Lugaric and Mirjana Didovic said that the latest stand-by arrangement with the International Monetary Fund was detrimental to Croatia as was the fact that the arrangement was signed in secret although it was the government's obligation to have such arrangements discussed by parliament first.
Zgrebec said that Sanader was not fulfilling his first electoral promise because tax obligations were being increased rather than reduced.
Vidovic called the government's policy towards pensioners "a policy of lies, the purpose of which is to save the three pensioners' votes which this government depends on". There will be no increase in pension allowances although the media bombastically announced a four percent rise, he said.
"What is actually happening is the harmonisation of pensions, which has been going on for 12 years," Vidovic said.
Crkvenac said that business people were increasingly worried because the HDZ lacked an economic programme, there was no employment in the construction of infrastructure and no export-boosting measures. Funds intended for development are being used for consumption and unfulfilled promises, he added.
Commenting on the re-establishment of the financial police, Crkvenac said that financial control could be performed by inspectors from the tax authority and that financial police were "an instrument of political retaliation".