The government will look into the series of measures on battling the population drain presented by President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic on Monday and, if they prove to be financially realistic, we will gladly adopt some of them, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Tuesday.

“I am certain there are measures there which we can accept, as well as those we have already discussed at the demographic revitalisation council. We will adopt the ones we can,” Plenkovic said.

The president presented her measures for the demographic policy on Monday, and said this was a vital issue for Croatia’s survival as a country.

Population drain is a problem, not just in Croatia but other countries similar to ours, he said, and added that the European Union labour market opened for Croats five years ago, which some people took advantage of and moved to EU, he said.

“These trends are normal for a part of the population which is mobile within the EU. The same thing happened in The Czech Republic and Poland,” Plenkovic said.

When asked about the president’s recent sharp criticism of the government, Prime Minister said the government has the largest responsibility to implement economic policies, and added that all the moves the government made “were in the right direction.”

“We prevented a total economic disaster last year when we passed the law on government appointed crisis management,” Plenkovic said.

“Everyone is free to offer their opinion,” he said. “I am convinced that our work is moving the society forward. Some results are already visible, and others will come.”

Earlier today, the president said she believed Croatia had enormous development potential, but that the society must remove the barriers in its way to progress.

“Do not take this the wrong way, I salute the government’s efforts, but there are numerous indicators showing that we are in a bad position compared to other countries,” the president said.

She added that there is no systemic approach to solving problems, and that the country’s priorities were unclear.

We are often susceptible to media psychoses, and the laws get passed to temporarily fix problems, she said.

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