"Oil prices have gone up after the government increased the VAT rate to 25 per cent. All prices are going up, and some Cabinet ministers are announcing, with unbelievable ease, increases in electricity and gas prices as well," Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) president Jadranka Kosor said at a press conference in the Parliament building.
She said it was beyond comprehension that the Social and Economic Council had not tackled the problem at its meeting on Monday, because the oil price increases would generate further rises in prices, particularly those of electricity and natural gas.
Kosor recalled that during her prime ministerial term of two and a half years electricity prices had not been increased despite demands, adding that it was the government's duty under the constitution to ensure a welfare state and social justice.
Kosor expressed concern that the government had not responded to plans in Serbia to rehabilitate Chetnik leader Draza Mihailovic. "We have not heard a single coherent response yet," she said.
Kosor supported the response by the Speaker of Parliament, Boris Sprem, who had asked Zagreb County Court president Ivan Turudic to publicly apologise for what he had told his predecessor, Luka Bebic, at the trial of former Prime Minister Ivo Sanader. "Look, you're not in Parliament. I warn you to please behave yourself," Turudic said at the court hearing last week.
Kosor said she also expected Sprem to ask Science and Education Minister Zeljko Jovanovic to apologise for calling Parliament "a hen house".