Niksic: Novalic's government does not care about workers and pensioners

Nermin Niksic, President of SDP, said at today's press conference that it is unacceptable not to have local elections in Mostar this year. He requested OHR and EU to get involved and use their authority so that a solution can be found which would allow for elections.

Niksic also said that the current situation suits those who are presently in power in Mostar.

- Should something happen to mayor Ljubo Beslic, God forbid, who would then manage the budget, asked Niksic.

Niksic also said that SDP delegates together with DF delegates requested urgent session of Parliamentary Assembly where they would propose changes to the election law with regard to Mostar elections.

- We can't accept that there will be no elections in Mostar and we will do everything in our power to see them taking place, said Niksic, explaining that this is about proposal of SDP and DF which Intersector Group has not even considered.

On the other hand, said Niksic, while the state power experienced political bankruptcy which showed itself at yesterday's voting about proposals for Mostar, the power at the Federal level brought us to the social and economic chaos.

- The government of Fadil Novalic has shown arrogance towards the most vulnerable categories such as workers and pensioners. Attitude of SDA and HDZ towards pensioners deserves to be condemned. As far as we in the opposition are concerned, Prime Minister Novalic has crossed the line because he justifies his own incompetence and the incompetence of his government with untruth and deceit and on the account of pensioners. SDA and HDZ politics is responsible for the state of the pensioners' fund; they have been emptying all the funds for years and they are doing it as today, said Niksic.

Niksic explained that this is why SDP is requesting Parliament FBiH to schedule an emergency session of Home of Representatives with only one agenda item.

- And that is, the current state of the retirement fund and the ways to overcome the situation. We have our proposals and we expect the government to come forth with their own proposals so we have something to discuss and agree upon. We trust that there is enough of knowledge and competence in the Parliament to find a solution for stabilization of the pensioners' fund. If necessary, we can proceed with adoption of budget revision, said Niksic.

- Pensioners are population with merit of what we have today – they built this country. The politics mustn't differ as regards this part of population. What Novalic and Cavara (Marinko, President of FBiH) are doing is an insult for all pensioners and SDP is requesting them to stop such rhetoric and finally start doing something.

Niksic also said that from 2011 to 2015, when he was Prime Minister of FBiH, when also SDA was part of the government, pensions were raised twice, each time by 5%.

- That was the time I thought, and I still think that, it is a responsibility and a task of every government to improve livelihoods of pensioners by raising their pensions. Although we got criticized back then for raising pensions by 1.5 KM/a day, the same persons blame us today for having done that in the past because they are not able to pay those pensions... How come that we were able to do that, and they are not? I'm proud of such decisions made by my government.

Niksic said that Novalic forgot, or concealed rather, that in 2011, the Government faced debt confirmed by the court of 180 million KM – the money that governments of SDA and HDZ took away from pensioners in order to pay good pensions.

- That was a real attack on PIO (retirement fund) when SDA and HDZ approved requests for retirement of tens of thousands people of age between 35 and 40. That's what brought the retirement fund down to its knees. It is not bad decision (as Novalic said) to raise pensions to people who worked some 40 years and who deserved that. It is bad decision when you take away money from those people to pay out pensions to those who do not meet any conditions to be pensioners.

FBiH Government had an arrangement with IMF back then and IMF would never approve any unfounded increase of pensions.

- They endorsed the decision because that was a well justified move. If they wish to fight against illegitimacies, I should like to invite them to reprimand those who forced PTT (public company) last year to pay 30 million KM of loan to the retirement fund. Now that is an illegitimate move and somebody will have to answer for that. They should check the Law on Public Companies, Article 41, which clearly says that giving loans in public companies is strictly forbidden. Today we see that those 30 million KM that retirement fund owes to PTT is still there as a debt, said Niksic.