"Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic praised the steps his cabinet had taken to tackle the pandemic, but the parliamentary opposition downplayed the efforts such as the procurement of vaccines and jobkeeping measures during a debate in Parliament on Monday," state agency Hina reported, in a news item titled "PM and Opposition have opposite perception of government's results."

“About 700,000 workers and 120,000 employers have bridged the crisis during Covid-19, solely and exclusively because of the government’s decisions that have been fast, generous and effective,” Plenkovic underscored while he submitted a report in parliament on the European Council meetings.

“As far as allowances are concerned, we have made an unprecedented move, and other countries have done that too but in less effective manner,” added Plenkovic.

Asked by MP Stephen Bartulica of the Homeland Movement (DP) whether children who have not been vaccinated will be able to attend school in the autumn, Plenkovic said that the experts will decide on that, reiterating that vaccination is also the responsibility of every citizen.

Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) MPs praised the prime minister’s results, jobs being saved, the procurement of vaccines, while the opposition criticised.

“These obsequious questions insult my intellectual dignity and of my fellow MPs,” Nino Raspudic (Bridge) said after Majda Bruc (HDZ) praised Plenkovic for having fought for national interests in procuring vaccines.

MP Nikola Grmoja (Bridge) said that the prime minister has not given away anything that was his and that the support the government provided was the taxpayers’ money.

Plenkovic ironically responded that it were lawmakers of the opposition Bridge and SDP party who helped preserve jobs, provided vaccine doses as well made sure that Croatia could keep its financial stability.

Dismissing claims of Green-Left bloc’s MP Ursa Raukar about the HDZ defeat in the European Parliament, Plenković recalled that the Greens in the European Parliament were against mentioning Croats as a constituent people in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

“Many downplay the problems and challenges we are experiencing through the pandemic and economic crisis. It is not clear to me how they cannot see what effort has been invested through the budget for the state to withstand it all,”  Grozdana Peric from the HDZ ranks said.