International Workers’ Day Message from the President of the Republic

This year we are marking International Workers’ Day in totally different, unprecedented circumstances. The coronavirus pandemic has prevented hundreds of thousands of people from working and earning a living. This crisis has affected everyone, however the consequences will not be the same for everyone. The social disparity is going to widen and this represents a threat and a challenge which we must solve.

It is now certain that the crisis will deepen and that it will be imperative to protect the most vulnerable parts of society. I therefore immediately call for social dialogue.

The State has taken measures to help businesses survive the crisis, but the priority must be every worker who has children, a family, who has to make loan payments or rent, utilities…. The Government’s measures have been helpful for starters, but serious problems lie ahead and we already have to consider what has to be done and how.

We cannot be the best or the biggest in everything because we are not, but we have to be quick, we have to be smart and know what our real interests are. As a society and as human beings we will have to do things the hard way, with more seriousness and intelligence than we have till now because the world is changing and after this crisis some things will just be plain different.

Where something disappears, and in every crisis jobs disappear, something new has to develop. Let us preserve what we can, let us improve it, but let us also build something new.

Decent wages for honest work – that is all a normal person wants and a normal country and politics should ensure.

In the current situation this is necessary more than ever before, without difference, without excuses and without shifting responsibility.

To all workers, women and men, to all citizens of the Republic of Croatia, I extend best wishes on International Workers’ Day in the hope that we will never again mark it in circumstances such as these.

Zoran Milanović