Yugoslav Premier Survives Call to Step Down in Economic Crisis

Premier Branko Mikulic on Saturday survived calls for his resignation from Yugoslavia’s most Westernized republics when the Parliament rejected their plan to topple his government because of the country’ economic crisis.

In a speech to the Federal Assembly, Yugoslavia’s national Parliament, Mikulic denounced Slovenia and Croatia, the two most advanced of Yugoslavia’s six republics, for demanding a vote of no confidence in his administration.

The Parliament then held separate closed debates in its two chambers, the Federal Chamber and the Chamber of Republics and Provinces. Each chamber voted against even calling a vote on the Slovenian and Croatian proposals for a no-confidence motion, the Tanjug news agency said.

If Mikulic had been voted out of office, it would have been the first such vote against a Communist government anywhere in Eastern Europe.

Yugoslavia has been grappling with a prolonged economic and social crisis that has recently prompted calls for a multi-party system to replace the Communists’ current monopoly on power.

In his speech, Mikulic suggested alternative political systems could eventually be debated, noting that “our situation is so serious that we have no right to put off a debate on the true reasons which caused it and on its eradication.”

For the moment, however, he said there is “no political alternative to socialist self-management,” the system of worker management bequeathed by the late Josip Broz Tito and now widely blamed for some of the nation’s economic woes.

Sixteen percent of the work force is unemployed and the foreign debt exceeds $20 billion. Inflation touched almost 200% before the government slapped a six-month freeze on wages and prices last November.

Yugoslavia is trying to raise an emergency $300-million loan. The money is needed to stave off virtual bankruptcy before a new agreement with the International Monetary Fund takes effect. The IMF has worked with Yugoslav officials for more than six months to devise a package of market-oriented reforms aimed at reducing inflation to 90% while rescheduling payments on $2 billion of debt and extending $1.4 billion in new loans.

By backing Mikulic, Parliament signaled its support for the reforms.