"The priorities of my government in 2023 are reducing inflation, promoting economic growth and tourism, speeding up the post-quake reconstruction of Zagreb and the Banija region, demographic policy, the fight against corruption, and protection of human and minority rights," the state news platform Hina cited Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic, as saying in an interview with state radio on Wednesday.

“The goal is to reduce inflation to between 5.6 and 6.0 percent and ensure GDP growth of around 1.0 percent or higher. I think that the tourist season will be excellent again, but the most challenging will be the reconstruction of Banija and Zagreb because this process is not going at a good rate and we will focus our efforts on speeding it up,” Plenkovic said.

He added that “the focus will also be on the rule of law, the better functioning of government institutions, the fight against corruption, the protection of human and minority rights, improving the business environment and fostering demographic policy as the existential issue of the Croatian people.”

“There is still a lot of work to be done. The delivery is good, but now that we are at the core (of the EU), we need to move on,” Plenkovic said.

He dismissed Tuesday’s accusations by President Zoran Milanovic that the armed forces are in terrible condition in terms of equipment.

“President Milanovic spends a lot of time with (Chief of the General Staff) Admiral Hranj, so he should discuss it with him. During our term we gave the armed forces what we could based on their requests,” Plenkovic said.

The government has considerably increased investment in the military, as shown by the purchase of Rafale fighter jets, Black Hawk helicopters and Bradley fighting vehicles, he said. “In addition to strengthening the Army and the Navy, the government has also reinstated the rights of military personnel which were taken away from them by the Milanovic government.”

Hina did not explain what rights Plenkovic was referring to.