At its meeting on Thursday, the Croatian government decided to grant all pensioners and recipients of state old-age benefits a one-off allowance of €80 before Christmas. Around €100 million will be made available for this purpose.

“The government is today in a position to take the decision to grant all pensioners, more than 1,230,000 in number, a Christmas allowance of €80. We believe that this is an important measure at this time and a message of solidarity that shows that the state cares about our seniors,” said Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic at the government meeting.

To implement this decision, the Croatian Pension Insurance Institute will secure 98.6 million euros.

BUZ: Plenkovic buys social peace

The “Pensioners Together” bloc (BUZ) has responded with a statement announcing a new protest planned for Friday 13 December at Ban Josip Jelacic Square in Zagreb.

“After a series of deceptions and empty promises to pensioners and in the face of growing public discontent, the government has resorted to an old tactic, according to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic: another attempt to buy social peace. Once again, an attempt is being made to appease the discontent of pensioners, especially those with unjustifiably low pensions, with a cash allowance of €80 – another cheap attempt at ‘vote-buying’,” they said.

“This time Plenkovic is trying to appease the dissatisfied before the Christmas holidays by announcing that all 1.25 million pensioners will receive a ‘supplement’ of €80 Although this is not officially called a Christmas bonus, the public has already labelled it as such. The Prime Minister avoids calling it a Christmas bonus to avoid the additional outrage of pensioners, who will apparently receive a double ‘bonus’ – one from their local municipalities and another from the government,” BUZ claims.

New protest announced

The Prime Minister’s tactic of granting a “sudden” one-off allowance, this time €80, looks like a desperate attempt to divert attention from important problems, such as low pensions due to an unfair pension calculation formula and an even worse formula for regular adjustments, BUZ says, adding:

“While pensioners on ‘worker’ pensions are literally being robbed of an average of €200 per month, the government is “generously” offering a pittance as a temporary consolation. For many pensioners, that €200 a month means more than €2,000 less in their pockets – something that cannot be offset by one-off support packages, supplements or the so-called 13th pension.”

BUZ claims that more and more pensioners are realising that supplements like this €80 are not an act of goodwill or empathetic help from the government, but merely fear-driven reactions to protests – a small fraction of what has already been taken from them.

“On Friday, 13 December, at 12:00 on Ban Josip Jelacic Square, citizens will once again send a clear message to the government and Prime Minister Plenkovic. Dissatisfaction has long since reached its peak and the resignation of the entire government has become the minimum expectation,” the BUZ announced.