ZAGREB, 12 March (Hina) – The political platform Pensioners Together, the Pensioners’ Party, the Pensioners Together Bloc and the Democratic Party of Pensioners have signed a coalition agreement ahead of parliamentary elections, saying that one of the main points of their program is to ensure a €200 increase in the minimum pension.

“The coalition’s composition clearly shows that we will be running in the 2024 parliamentary election in a coalition with pensioners, of whom more than half a million are barely making ends meet,” Pensioners Together said in a statement on Tuesday.

Only with the support of voters, notably pensioners, can their biggest problem be solved, and that is the problem of growing poverty among the pensioner population, which threatens to make two-thirds of 1.2 million pensioners welfare cases, the statement said.

They argue that the lowest pension cannot be lower than the amount obtained by multiplying the number of years of pensionable service by 20 euros. They say that their proposal would solve the problem of over 300,000 pensioners with minimum pensions because their pensions would increase by about 200 euros.

These parties say that their package of proposals would increase pensions from the present 42% of the national average monthly wage, which isВ about 500 euros, to 60% of the average wage, or 720 euros.