Responding to questions from the press, the opposition leader said it was absurd that a referendum was necessary because of motorways, because the accent was on the government's responsibility.
Karamarko said the financial effects of the leasing would be short term, only a few months, to plug the budget holes, while Croatia would lose control of its motorways for the next 50 years.
Reporters asked him about the liberalisation of the energy market and if the state-owned power utility HEP would be in an equal position. Karamarko said this was a quite surprising and ad hoc move, and that a model should have been found to protect the ailing HEP.
This liberalisation is going in the wrong direction, he said, wondering what would happen to HEP if electricity was imported.
This could lead to HEP's ruin within a couple of years as, due to lack of investments, it will no longer being able to produce, which could lead to an increase in prices when we become dependent on someone else. HEP should have been made stronger first and the next moves contemplated only then, said Karamarko.