The Croatian Peasants' Party (HSS) and Democrats parliamentary group on Thursday submitted an interpellation over the government's failure to extend a moratorium on the sale of land to aliens.

HSS leader Kreso Beljak told a press conference that when Croatia joined the European Union in mid-2013, a seven-year moratorium was introduced on the sale of farmland to aliens with the possibility of extending that ban for an additional three (3) years.

The 7-year period is about to expire and the government does not want to do anything to extend the moratorium, Beljak said insisting that the government should enable local Croatian farmers to use state-owned farmland and in that way preserve the Croatian village and country as much as that is possible.

I’m afraid that the door has been opened wide for foreign capital that not any Croatian farmer will be able to compete against and the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and government have decided to “drive the final nail into the coffin of the Croatian village and farming,” Beljak said.

Asked to comment on claims by Agriculture Minister Tomislav Tolusic that a request of that nature can be submitted until 1 July 2020, Beljak said that what Minister Tolusic had done for Croatia’s agriculture so far didn’t seem to give much hope of that happening.

Beljak’s party colleague Davor Vlaovic explained that HSS with the support of 16 MPs from the SDP, IDS and GLAS, Democrats and independent MPs have supported the interpellation and want to send a message to citizens that nothing is being done to extend the moratorium on the sale of land to aliens.