Croats Hit by Soaring Swiss Franc Call Protest

A Croatian NGO set up to lobby for the rights of people with loans in Swiss francs on Monday announced street protests in April while calling for the resignation of the national bank chief.

The Association Franak said that the governor of Croatian national bank, HNB, Boris Vujcic, should step down, Ivan Kontrec, from the Association, told a press conference.

The NGO said the government and the HNB had failed to resolve the plight of people who took out loans in Swiss francs - which have become expensive to repay following a steep rise in the value of the franc.

"The HNB did not submit the information that we were looking for, the finance ministry is delaying negotiations, and no mutual communication between various ministries exists," Kontrec complained.

The NGO has called on members to start making protest signs and pay their membership fees, so that they can finance their protest, scheduled for April 25th.

The protest will only be called off if the government and HNB accept the NGO's main demand, which is to convert all loans taken out in francs into loans in Croatian kuna.

The value of the franc soared in January after the Swiss abruptly untied their national currency from a fixed exchange rate with the euro.

The Croatian government decided to freeze the exchange rate with the franc for a year, to give the authorities a breathing space to resolve the matter long term.

A working group including the NGO met on numerous occasions in February and March, trying to find a solution, but without success.

Although both the Association Franak and the government at one time favoured the "Hungarian model", which involves converting all foreign currency loans into loans in the national currency, Vujcic, for the bank,...