Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in parliament on Tuesday that post-earthquake reconstruction of the Banovina region could be faster than that of Zagreb due to the fact that a vast majority of damaged units there were family houses that were easier to renovate than apartment blocks in Zagreb.

“To give a reconstruction calendar now would be irresponsible of me but we will do our best for reconstruction to start as soon as possible,” he said in response to a question by Social Democrat MP Boska Ban-Vlahek during a debate on the government-sponsored amendments to the Act on the Post-Earthquake Reconstruction in the City of Zagreb and Krapina-Zagorje and Zagreb Counties, under which the law would be expanded to also apply to Sisak-Moslavina and Karlovac counties, hit by a 6.2 magnitude earthquake on 29 December.

Most MP Marija Selak-Raspudic insisted that the government was introducing discrimination between Gornja Stubica and Petrinja, which are in the same category of underdeveloped communities, as it planned to fully finance the post-earthquake reconstruction of Petrinja while covering 80% of the reconstruction costs in Gornja Stubica, to which Plenkovic said that her remarks were populist platitudes.

The government has offered the parliament to define a fair model of reconstruction that would also take into account the extent of the damage and the number of houses affected in Sisak, but the law must be defendable and it must not discriminate against anyone, Plenkovic said, also dismissing the Opposition’s criticism that the competent state institutions were late in responding to the 29 December quake.