The Social Democratic Party called on Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic on Thursday not to make vaccination a requirement for job-keeping payments, while the Bridge party said business owners were being blackmailed into vaccination.

“In Croatia, mandatory vaccination is possible, but the obligation is first established under the law on the protection of the population and then regulated and worked out under Immunisation Rules and the Mandatory Vaccination Programme. The obligation of vaccination can’t be imposed in another way, notably not by linking support for entrepreneurs with vaccination,” SDP president Pedja Grbin posted on Facebook.

He said the government’s COVID-19 vaccination plan had failed. “Workers and entrepreneurs can’t be held to account for that,” he said, telling the government and Plenkovic, “if you want to link vaccination with some benefits, set clear criteria, define who will monitor them and enable them for all.”

Bridge tweeted that Croatia was stuck with over 300,000 surplus vaccines because of poor government moves and communication omissions. “Bridge is against entrepreneurs, who are being forced into vaccination through blackmail, saving the government’s mindless epidemic policy.”