Commenting on the ongoing teachers' strike, the leader of the Social Democratic Party, Davor Bernardic, said on Monday that Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and Education Minister Blazenka Divjak were the most responsible for the chaos in education and that their arrogance had completely undermined the school system.

Our goal in the SDP is that children return to school as soon as possible, which is why we support the education unions in their demand for a higher job complexity index, Bernardic told reporters. The school strike has been going on too long, children and parents are suffering and this is untenable, he added.

Divjak should step down because she is completely out of her depth and because the education reform has resulted in teachers striking, children not going to school and the procurement of cheap tablets. Our goal is to restore teachers’ dignity so that the country can function normally because there is chaos in every department, Bernardic said.

He does not expect, if the government agrees to the education unions’ demand for higher job complexity indices, an avalanche of similar demands or a blow to the state budget because, he said, the government recently agreed a new collective agreement for state administration workers.

Bernardic said the union of doctors and health workers was rightfully complaining because they were exposed to big pressure and worked day and night without being adequately paid.

He went on to say that the main crisis in Croatia was the lack of trust in institutions. He said Prime Minister Plenkovic had created mistrust by falsely claiming that there was no money for higher wages and that he had angered education unions by inviting them to talks only after they had been on strike for 35 days.

Speaking at a panel on judicial reforms, Bernardic said the situation in the judiciary had never been worse.

Citizens feel injustice at every step and the biggest injustice is when they see that the law is not the same for everyone, that rapists are free, that there is no punishment for thieves, that power wielders and corrupt politicians evade justice for years, he said.

He went on to say that according to Transparency International corruption perception rankings, Croatia was among the most corrupt countries in the world over the past three years.

Corruption in Croatia is systemic, it spills over every sphere of society and is a consequence of bad government, he said, adding that half the government had to be replaced over the summer due to suspicion of corruption and that it was still in power thanks to political corruption.

Some judges are untouchable and act as though they are above the law, everything in Croatia is so ruined, including the judiciary, that we need a fresh start, which is why the SDP is proposing a radical judicial reform as the main prerequisite of the country’s development, Bernardic said.