A protest held by the business association called "the Voice of Entrepreneurs" (UGP) ended just after noon on Wednesday when most protesters dispersed from Zagreb's main square, and some of them told Hina that they were at a breaking point due to the closure of their businesses.

Dejan Alpeza from Rijeka, who owns four cafe bars and employs 22 people sent a message to the government and national Covid response team via “live stream”, saying among other things that anti-Covid measures need to be realistic and should not divide businesses, so that people do not have any doubt in such decisions, which according to Alpeza have no logic.

Talking to state agency Hina he underscored that hospitality facilities were closed for 121 days last year and he appealed to the government to compensate those owners whose businesses had to shut their doors.

Alpeza has been in business for 18 years and as he said, because hospitality has been closed for 121 days already, owners are at a “breaking point.”

Alpeza said that he was using the job-retention grants, however, he warned that they were disbursed are paid “in a belated fashion” and that only three days ago he received those grants for December.

Kristina Samardzic, a photographer from Zagreb, told Hina that she who believed that the epidemiological measures, which among other things ban cafes from being open, go in favour of the tourism season.

“Thousands of people who are here, do not primarily live off tourism and the measures adopted only go in favour of the tourism season,” said Samardzic, who depends on the hospitality sector as most of her work is at weddings, christenings and so on which are not happening.

UGP organised the protest rally to express dissatisfaction with the way the Covid crisis was being handled by the government.

According to police estimates which UGP presented, about five thousand people gathered in Zagreb’s main square.

UGP’s executive director Drazen Orescanin said that several bus loads of protestors had arrived from Dalmatia, the Kvarner region, Bjelovar, Varazdin, Vinkovci and elsewhere from around the country.