Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Pedja Grbin said on Saturday that his party wants to ensure free kindergartens for all children in Croatia, warning that Croatia has one of the lowest kindergarten attendance rates in the EU and is seeing a sharply declining birth rate.

Addressing a press conference in the northern Adriatic city of Pula, Grbin said that all children should have access to kindergartens, regardless of their social and economic situation and the place of residence because kindergartens help reduce social inequality and give children more than education.

Introducing free kindergartens would benefit parents because it would reduce the economic cost of raising their child, help achieve gender equality because increasing the number of kindergartens and removing the financial burden would make it easier for women to work and pursue their careers, and invest in children is the only true demographic measure, the SDP leader said.

Grbin warned that investing in free kindergartens and increasing their capacity is necessary because of low kindergarten attendance rates and the declining birth rate.

The SDP, he added, is aware of the problem of the lack of places in kindergartens and the shortage of kindergarten teachers, while the construction of new kindergartens and extension of existing ones takes time and should be addressed immediately.

Grbin said that this could be achieved by increasing allocations. He said that the central government should get involved in financing kindergartens while management should be left to the local community because it best recognises the needs of local people.

Grbin said that the government would set the cost of kindergarten annually, which would be around €350 per child, and would cover half of the amount. In that way, parents would no longer need to participate financially in public kindergartens and the system would have additional funding to increase wages for teachers and build new kindergartens.

“This measure would cost the state budget €300 million annually. In that way, we would ensure that every child attends kindergarten and their parents would not have to participate financially,” Grbin said, adding that in Pula the cost of kindergarten is currently €90 a month per child.

He said this measure would help ensure further funding that would help open between 100 and 200 new places within four years, depending on the efficiency of local government.

“This is a good measure that would benefit parents, and it is also a demographic measure. I should recall that in the last 10 years, the number of births fell from slightly over 40,000 in 2013 to 34,000 last year,” Grbin said.