Zagreb mayor, Tomislav Tomasevic, said on Tuesday that in the 2023 city budget some funding would be earmarked to pay out Christmas and Easter bonuses for persons with disabilities, state news platform Hina reported.

Hina did not say what the cost of this plan might total. This populist announcement was the idea of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), the junior partner of Tomasevic’s green-left group in the city council.

Tomasevic also said that “a large number of persons with disabilities” would also be given blue city-mandated trash bags for non-sorted waste. These normally have to be bought at stores by Zagreb residents. He also said “he hoped” that by the end of the year a contract would be signed with “the competent ministry” for the purchase of 20 new low-floor trams. “Forty new buses have been delivered, as well, and another 20 will arrive in the next 30 days,” he said.

The city’s fleet of vans for transporting persons with disabilities will be refurbished as well, and efforts will be made to use EU funding to purchase the vehicles, as well as new trams, he said, noting that the city had also increased the number of students with disabilities entitled to city-funded scholarships to 120.

The head of the local association of people with disabilities SOIH, Marica Miric, said that the city had done much to improve the quality of life for persons of disabilities, but that there was also a need to further improve their status.

“We want better accessibility, as well as new trams, buses, and vehicles for persons with disabilities. We also want buses for tourists with disabilities, and we want transport connections to the city airport adapted to persons with disabilities,” she said, noting that groups representing people with disabilities also want better social services in the form of mobile teams, adequate care for persons above 21 with autism spectrum disorder, and financial aid and higher allowances for persons with physical disabilities.