Zagreb Mayor Tomislav Tomasevic said on Tuesday that an amendment put forward by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to the city budget proposal for 2022 would be accepted to increase kindergarten capacity in the capital city amid plans to phase out allowances for stay-at-home parents.

The SDP is a junior partner in the city assembly to Tomasevic’s Mozemo! party.

“We plan an amount of 52 million kuna, which is twice as much money as the average in the past five years. An additional 15 million kuna will be set aside to rent facilities to serve as temporary kindergartens,” he said.

The mayor said that an amendment regarding the stay-at-home parent scheme, put forward by the opposition HDZ party, would not be accepted.

“They asked that we take around 200 million kuna in subsidies from the ZET (city public transport company) to compensate for the decrease in allowances for stay-at-home parents. That would make ZET a lossmaker and prevent it from applying for EU funds,” he explained.

Tomasevic said that the opposition Most party was late with submitting an amendment regarding teaching assistants, which was why it could not be accepted but added that an even higher increase in the hourly wage for those assistants would be accepted, to make it amount to 30 kuna. The mayor said he hoped next year money for that purpose would be obtained from EU funds.

The city administration will propose the City Assembly a budget in the amount of 15.12 billion kuna, which is 1.1 billion more than the revised budget for 2021.