SPLIT, Jan 3 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said on Saturday the government would address the increase in the price of bread at its first session on Monday.
SPLIT, Jan 3 (Hina) - Prime Minister Ivo Sanader said on Saturday the
government would address the increase in the price of bread at its
first session on Monday.#L#
Sanader said his cabinet would analyse the price increase but added
"we cannot directly influence it since it's a market issue. But we'll
exert political and psychological pressure because the initial
analyses show that the price of bread was raised without
justification".
Speaking at a session marking the 14th anniversary of the
establishment of his Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party in the
southern seaport of Split, the new PM recalled the role of the late
Franjo Tudjman, Croatia's first president and founder of the HDZ,
saying he was grateful to Tudjman "for having the vision and the
strength to create Croatia".
Sanader credited war veterans for Croatia's freedom, saying the law on
veterans would be changed. "The former government's law is appaling in
some provisions, for example that when war veterans end up in court
and are convicted they lose all rights, which is against the
Constitution and doesn't apply to any other category of citizens."
"We also wish to improve the standard of pensioners," Sanader said,
adding that an agreement had been reached with the Croatian Pensioners
Party.
Commenting on claims from the former ruling and now opposition parties
that the new authorities would not be able to fulfil their
pre-election promises, the PM labelled them "mean". He slammed the
former Ministry of War Veterans' Affairs for its treatment of
veterans, and said that many things had been lacking in Buffer Stocks
when relief was recently sent to the victims of the earthquake in
Iran. "Those are just some examples of the state of affairs we
encountered" when coming into power last month, he said.
"Everything that we promised... we will fulfil in four years' time,
and one promise we are already tackling because we have started
downsizing state administration," Sanader said, adding that local
government and self-government units would now be asked to do the
same.
He went on to say that the government had decided to set up a state
agency that would issue permits to people launching new businesses or
building houses.
"We shall do everything and act responsibly so as to raise the
standard of citizens, war veterans, the unemployed, so that more
attention is given to the environment."
(Hina) ha