Social Democratic Party MP Sinisa Hajdas-Doncic said in the parliament on Monday that the country's economic policy could not be reduced to "mere competitiveness of cities and municipalities", adding that it would lead to rivalry between local government units.

This week, the parliament is expected to discuss a set of changes to nine tax laws, which are to take effect at the start of 2024 and are aimed at ensuring wage growth and strengthening local government units’ fiscal autonomy. The set includes changes to the Income Tax, which envisage the abolition of local taxes to encourage cities and municipalities to determine income tax on their own.

Also on the agenda today is a bill on wages in state and public services, which is designed to implement the principle of equal pay for equal work.

In a comment on the planned changes to tax laws, Hajdas-Doncic said that Croatia was too small for rivalry between cities and municipalities.

As a consequence, municipalities and cities that have money will have more of it, and those who lack it will not benefit in any way, he said.

Speaking of demography, he said that the current policies promote cheap work.

“People who have been immigrating are the ones that do low-paying jobs,” he said, calling for devising a quality public immigration policy.

Hajdas-Doncic said he believes that very few Croatians who have emigrated, notably those whose children enroll in kindergartens in other countries, will return to Croatia.

He also described as alarming the fact that 1.7% of Croatians hold 43% of total savings in Croatia.

Most MP warns about problem of demography

An MP from the conservative populist Most party, Marija Selak-Raspudic, also warned about the problem of demography in a comment on Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman’s statement that more Croats were returning to Croatia than emigrating, noting that statistics spoke differently.

In 2021, 10,622 Croatian citizens immigrated in Croatia and 25,289 left, she said.

“As for Germany, from where, according to Grlic-Radman, Croatians can barely wait to return, 4,225 Croatians emigrated while three times more moved in – 12,906,” she said.

Describing the HDZ’s immigration policy as short-sighted, she said that the government had opted to deal with the growing problem of emigration and labour shortages by opening the borders wide.

In 2022 new work permits were issued to 42,166 more workers than in 2021, she said, warning that the influx of foreign workers was continuing.

For the first time since 2008 Croatia in 2022 registered a positive migration balance, she said, wondering what Croatia “will look like tomorrow and who will live in it.”

“Our qualified workers will never return,” she said, warning that at the same time foreign workers in Croatia lack any labour rights.

Ruling HDZ party’s MP Marko Pavic said that during the term of the last SDP-led government, Croatia had 300,000 jobless people.