Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Pedja Grbin said on Tuesday that the party had submitted to the parliament an interpellation related to the government's work regarding reconstruction in the aftermath of last year's earthquakes in order to "make it start working."

“Today is exactly six months since the devastating earthquake in Petrinja and just over a year and three months since the Zagreb quake and the SDP has decided to submit an interpellation on the government’s work regarding post-earthquake reconstruction because we believe that reconstruction is tardy and is not being conducted well. It’s tragic that reconstruction and its speed has boiled down to a dispute between (Construction) Minister Darko Horvat and the media about whether it is two or three houses that have been demolished since the Zagreb tremor. It is for that reason in fact that we will try to compel the government to start working,” Grbin told a press conference in Parliament House.

He thinks that the first effects of the interpellation could be seen even before it was submitted, because Prime Minister Andrej Plenković “decided not only to comment on it but went to Petrinja to attend some of the activities regarding reconstruction.”

“This government has shown on many occasions that it starts to work when its inaction is publicly pointed out and considering that reconstruction is quite late, it is our obligation to publicly speak about that,” added Grbin.

He explained that the interpellation calls on the government to amend the Reconstruction Act to include local people from the field who know best what is not functioning in practice and what needs to be changed. “We also call for providing the public with much more transparent information on reconstruction and for stepping up the reconstruction process. We also consider that it is necessary to strengthen ministry personnel because judging by statements by the director of the Reconstruction Fund, Damir Vandjelic, it seems the ministry is a bottleneck in the process”.

“There are two huge problems, and one of them is the reconstruction of illegally built buildings. The SDP asked for an extension of the deadline for their legalisation beyond 30 June but the government turned a deaf ear to that. And the other problem is the revitalisation of Banija because if reconstruction is going to mean returning to the situation that existed before the earthquake, then locals will not have any benefit from that. That is why revitalisation needs to be conducted simultaneously. The government has established a commission for revitalisation, but we have not seen any benefits from that as yet,” said Grbin.

Davorko Vidovic, a member of the commission, said that for the past three months nothing had been done in that regard.

“We call on the government to immediately start working with regard to the revitalisation programme… otherwise its announcement of revitalisation will be just another political paper tiger,” said Vidovic.

Grbin added that he expected the government to respond to the interpellation as soon as possible so that the parliament can debate it and not wait until the autumn.

He added that the Reconstruction Act should clearly define institutions in charge of the issue of reconstruction so as to prevent the overlapping of duties and passing the buck between institutions.