It seems nothing will come of the process to reconstruct the city of Zagreb following a March 2020 earthquake, said MP Anka Mrak-Taritas of the opposition liberal Glas party, describing the process as lacking in effort and goodwill which, she said, is "the greatest shame of (PM) Andrej Plenkovic's government."

“Seventeen months have passed since the earthquake, and we still see nothing regarding reconstruction. Meetings between the government and City authorities are no longer happening. The head of the Fund for Reconstruction Damir Vandjelic and Economy Minister Darko Horvat have even stopped their public ‘debate’ over who is to blame for this,” Mrak-Taritas said at a press conference on Tuesday.

“The Empire State Building, with all its 102 floors, was built in sixteen months’ time, and without disrupting traffic,” she quipped.

Eight months have passed since the government received the money from the EU Solidarity Fund, Mrak-Taritas warned, adding that “Croatia is at risk of being the first member state to fail to spend any money within the set deadline.

“We may me forced to repay the sum into the EU budget, while at the same time the government is full of excuses over why nothing has been done, citing laws, programmes, the (Reconstruction) Fund,” she said.

It is absolutely certain at this point that Zagreb reconstruction is going nowhere, she said. “That would require the know-how, good management, and will, and we see none of that.”