The Trade Union of State and Municipal Civil Servants and Employees of the Republic of Croatia, the Association of Professional Firefighters' Trade Unions of the Republic of Croatia, the Association of Professional Firefighters of Croatia and the Trade Union of Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, the Firefighters' Committee united in the Coordination of Trade Unions and Associations of Professional Firefighters, organised a protest action on St. Mark's Square in Zagreb on Friday.

The protest “Fires do not go out with lies” was organised after some founders of public fire brigades announced the closure of the fire brigades because they could no longer finance the work of the public fire brigades they had founded. With the protest, they want to put pressure on the Croatian Firefighting Association, which has not adopted the necessary delegated legislation to clarify the status of professional firefighters and does not have a defined and clear vision of the much-needed national strategy for the development of firefighting in the Republic of Croatia.

They also call on the Government of the Republic of Croatia to ensure permanent, sufficient and uniform funding of the decentralised fire brigade in the new legislative period and to adopt the necessary legislation provided for by the Law on firefighting so that every professional firefighter in Croatia has a guaranteed income that adequately recognises their work.

The gathering of protesters began at 12:00 on the European Square, and at 13:00 the protest column of 72 vehicles arrived at St Mark’s Square.

“For four years we have been trying to solve the problem of salaries in local and regional administrative units with the Croatian Firefighting Association, but there is still no regulation that regulates salaries, we have been waiting for it since 2020. We expect that the firefighters will receive their legal acts as early as the first government session. The firefighters are ready, we will use all available instruments, just as the government uses its own. We expect the firefighters’ issue to be resolved through peaceful dialogue. There are major problems in the fire service, there are not enough personnel. We are all living in great uncertainty,” said trade unionist Iva Suskovic.