President Republic on International Workers’ Day: I Invite Those Responsible to Accept the Advice of Those Who Know and Can Create New Values and Jobs for People

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović sent the following congratulatory message on the occasion of 1 May International Workers’ Day to all the citizens of the Republic of Croatia:

“This year again we are celebrating International Workers’ Day in circumstances, which prevent Croatian workers from celebrating that important date in a traditional and appropriate fashion. A much bigger problem is that many people do not have a reason to celebrate because they have either lost their jobs or are not allowed to work and provide for themselves and their families.

For over a year, the main reason for that has been the coronavirus pandemic but also the vague and dubious regulations adopted in order to protect against the coronavirus, which limit the right to work. The state is helping entrepreneurs, which is its obligation in a situation when it is at the same time preventing them from normally conducting business.

The current short-term measures to help the economy are welcome, but their purpose should also have been and should be to protect workers and everyone living from their work, and not profit. Those measures are not sufficient to ensure stable growth in the long term and, which is equally important, to ensure a fair wage for fair work, social security and certainty for workers.

Croatia has the opportunity to ensure all this if it uses the money available to us through the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan in a smart, transparent and responsible way. I invite all those responsible to make this plan transparent and inclusive, to hear and accept the advice of those who know and who can create new values and jobs for people, and to take into account the real interests of the Croatian economy.

It is the obligation of all of us, as a society, to work harder, smarter and more thoughtfully because the world around us has also changed due to the crisis. Many things today are simply different. The biggest responsibility is on the state, the policy it leads, to recognize the new circumstances and without pretext use the opportunity that can ensure long-term stability in Croatia and a better life for our people.

In the hope that it will be so, I wish all Croatian workers and citizens a happy International Workers’ Day.”