Spending cuts are most visible when they're made to investments in the people, especially in education and social care.

Although the government refutes these allegations, today it is clear that the ruling coalition's policy in terms of cutting external debt is to "socialize" the burden onto the shoulders of the most vulnerable and push ahead with the divestiture of state property instead of improving the management of it.

In addition to education and social benefits, the Croatian Lottery funds – intended for the development of civil society – were also radically cut down. These funds, in large part, were intended for financing social services for vulnerable groups such as children with disabilities, the poor, and the elderly.

Minister of Culture Zlatko Hasanbegović has explained the cuts as savings that will spill directly into the state budget and, in this way, be used for direct financing of the needs of these vulnerable groups.

But cutting social benefits for the disabled in this way shows that this was not the intention – rather, it was conceived as a way to finance the destruction of civil society organizations and blunt the blade of criticism towards the ruling coalition.

Change your priorities

At the same time, instead of finding ways to protect the users of her department, Minister of Social Policy and Youth Bernardica Juretić is engaged in condemning feminism and finding the definition of "natural and proper" families as opposite to LGBT families.

If she would like to help families and the quality of family life, Juretić should address the specific issues to help the most vulnerable people and provide funds for social benefits.

Centre for Peace Studies urges the government to protect the rights and social benefits of the most vulnerable social groups and (in accordance with its proclaimed pro-natal policy) to stop with "saving money" on the children, the disabled, the sick and other vulnerable groups, and instead turn the knife on its own budgetary items.