Social Democratic Party president Davor Bernardic on Wednesday accused Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic of lying when he said there was no money to raise teachers' salaries and that they would go up 6%.

“The prime minister lied to unions and teachers when he said salaries were expected to go up 6%… he lied before when he claimed there was no money, then all of a sudden, in an election year, he said salaries would go up for everyone,” Bernardic said in parliament.

“They say there is no money for teachers, yet there was money to raise the salaries of the prime minister and the parliament speaker, by HRK 4,000 a month. There was also money for those… who receive a salary of over HRK 18,000, yet they say there is no money for teachers.”

Bernardic said there was money because the economy and tourism were growing, the deficit was decreasing and VAT revenues were higher.

He went on to say that Education Minister Blazenka Divjak and Croatian People’s Party (HNS) president Ivan Vrdoljak pretended to care for teachers and their pay rise.

“If the HNS really cared for teachers, they would go all the way, even at the risk of the government falling,” Bernardic said, calling for a snap election.

“We live in a country where over a million people live on the brink of poverty and more than half of them are pensioners who… can’t live normally on their pensions,” he added.