Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Thursday that a discussion can be held at an emergency session of parliament, but that the situation surrounding the judicial employees' strike will be resolved by the government though dialogue with trade unions.

“Discussing at the level of parliament what the government resolves in conversation with trade unions may be a political proposal, but realistically, solutions will be made in dialogue between the government and the trade unions. And in line with that, the Minister of Justice Ivan Malenica also conducted talks today,” said Plenkovic in his opening speech at the government session.

He added that Malenica has been talking with union representatives all this time and is looking for a solution that would not put other civil servants and state employees in a position where they would feel that their status and salaries would be undermined in some way.

Plenkovic called the request of President Zoran Milanovic to hold an emergency session of parliament due to the strike and the sale of surplus gas at HEP, “a political, biased and practically completely opposition initiative”.

Milanovic sent this request to the Croatian Parliament on the initiative of 9 opposition parties, and yesterday it was confirmed that the session will be held on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Plenkovic also said that in that request, Milanovic “literally copied what the President of the Supreme Court, Radovan Dobronic, wrote” earlier.

He said that the government will send a response to the letter from Dobronic, who addressed the government with a warning that the multi-week strike in the judiciary is seriously disrupting the functioning of the courts. However, he also said that the government does not support his suggestion that court employees be separated from the system of civil servants.

Regarding the second topic for which an extraordinary session of parliament was convened for tomorrow and this weekend, the sale of surplus HEP gas at prices that were lower than the purchase price, Plenkovic announced that the government would clear it up within its competences.

He said again that this proposal lives on as “an exclusively politicized approach by the President of the Republic, who here clearly and exclusively took the side of the opposition political parties and acted on the basis of their political pressure”.

Plenkovic also referred to the consequences of the storm that hit Zagreb yesterday, as well as other Croatian counties.