DJAKOVO, July 6 (Hina) - Commenting on Croatian parliament president Zlatko Tomcic's recent statement that Deputy Prime Minister Slavko Linic had "made an issue of privatisation", PM Ivica Racan said on Sunday he did not take part in
rows but that he, too, was unhappy with the privatisation process.
DJAKOVO, July 6 (Hina) - Commenting on Croatian parliament
president Zlatko Tomcic's recent statement that Deputy Prime
Minister Slavko Linic had "made an issue of privatisation", PM
Ivica Racan said on Sunday he did not take part in rows but that he,
too, was unhappy with the privatisation process. #L#
Privatisation is scarce and the few companies that are privatised
apparently cannot be privatised without excesses, he said.
"Perhaps the minister of economy is right when he insists that we
evaluate if we should privatise anything at all before elections,
because evidently every step in the privatisation process is
accompanied by increasing political tension," Racan said, adding
that he could not accept claims that only one man was responsible
for such a state of affairs.
Reporters also asked for a comment on Tomcic's statement that he
will demand establishing the political responsibility of those who
financed Rijeka's Viktor Lenac with huge amounts of money if the
shipyard goes bankrupt. Racan said he had been the first to announce
a few weeks back that Lenac would file for bankruptcy because "the
government can no longer shoulder the burden. The owners and co-
owners have to do it".
Asked why the government had allowed games with the price of wheat,
the PM denied this, stating that besides the already familiar
problems, this year the wheat situation had been exacerbated by a
disastrous drought.
"Regardless of that, alarming reports that we won't have enough
wheat for food or that the price of bread will have to go up are
baseless."
Asked to comment on the recent mutual accusations between two
former Osijek-Baranja county prefects, Ladislav Bognar and
Branimir Glavas, concerning unexplained war-time events in the
city of Osijek, Racan said the accusations were grave and an issue
to be tackled by the judiciary.
Accompanied by MPs and local officials, Racan is visiting the
eastern town of Djakovo to attend the central event of the
traditional Djakovacki vezovi festivities, which this year feature
45 Croatian and foreign folklore groups and around 5,000
participants.
The PM will also attend mass in the Djakovo cathedral.
(hina) ha