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Zagreb - The Sabor's Defence Committee on Wednesday supported by majority vote the proposal to vote confidence in Osijek-Baranja County head Ivan Anušić as the new Defence Minister, and he said that the completion of the coastal patrol boat fleet and the army's return to Beli Manastir were his priorities.
"Those are the things that we will insist on, they are the most important tasks for me as minister," Anušić told the committee.
As regards the return of the army to Baranja, in 2024 all conditions for that will be met, he said.
The candidate for the new Defence Minister and Deputy Prime Minister also announced greater allocations for the defence sector given the fact that current investments are below 2% of GDP, which is the level NATO insists on.
"As for an increase in allocations for the Defence Ministry, next year its budget will be increased by 11%. We will have a budget of HRK 8.8 billion as against 7.9 billion in 2022," Anušić said.
MP Katarina Peović of the Workers' Front party said that an increase in the defence budget was not justified in a country with a high rate of emigration, pensions that are close to the poverty line, and low minimum wages, to which Anušić said that the allocations would be much higher than the 2% of GDP if it was up to him.
"I believe investing in defence is key to solving problems that we will be faced with sooner or later, and those are instability, conflicts and a completely new world order that is being built at the moment, so one must have the capacity to deter those that could have aggressive plans about us," he said.
Lobbying to strengthen domestic arms production, army has no business being on border
"Until ten years ago it was difficult to imagine drones being used in a war so we have to think about everything that the future will bring, which is new strategies and new technologies," he said.
As for the remark by MP Darko Klasić of the HSLS that "terms of employment in the army are not attractive enough to draw new officers," Anušić said that the base pay in the army had been increased by 33% and that the next step would be to make military service more popular, notably among young people.
"We will thus show young people that there is a possibility of a career in the army," he said.
As for the domestic military industry, he said: "I will lobby for Croatia to make its arms and ammunition industry stronger. I believe that our dependence on external supply channels is, to a certain extent, a security problem," he said in response to a question from SDP MP Ranko Ostojić.
Asked by Croatian Sovereignists MP Marijan Pavliček about the deployment of the army at "the critical sections of the border", Anušić said that the police "do their job perfectly and the army has no business being at the border."