Mozemo MP Rada Boric on Friday labelled the demographic measures announced by Demography Minister Ivan Sipic as discriminatory. A policy aimed at keeping women at home to look after the children is patriarchal, outdated and discriminatory, she said.

“If they are proposing compensation to incentivise women to look after the children at home at least until the youngest child starts school, with this compensation increasing with the number of children in the family, have they calculated that this would effectively remove women from the labour market for their entire working lives? At the same time, they are discriminating against men who also want to be equal parents,” Boric said.

Forcing the “marriage or nothing” choice

She added that the idea of financially incentivising marriage through a tax break for newlyweds who have been married for at least a year is equally discriminatory and forces a choice between “marriage or nothing”.

MP Frane Tokic from the ruling coalition’s Domovinski pokret (DP) defended the measures, pointing out that Sipic (DP) had consulted respected demographers and that the effects of his measures would become apparent in the coming period.

Tokic said that the DP represents a sovereign and family-orientated policy.