Yugoslavia’s Premier and Cabinet Quit : Mikulic Puts Blame for Economic Crisis on Parliament, Party

Premier Branko Mikulic and his entire Cabinet quit today in the first resignation by a federal government in the history of Communist Yugoslavia.

Mikulic told Parliament he stepped down because it refused on Wednesday to pass an economic law needed to ensure continued support from the International Monetary Fund for the debt-ridden country.

The resignation could signal further liberalization of Yugoslavia’s one-party system as the ethnically divided country struggles to solve unprecedented social and economic woes.

Mikulic represented a hard-line faction within the party and his resignation indicated that more reform-oriented forces are gaining the upper hand in the party leadership.

But the resignations also represent an attempt to shift blame for the crisis to the Communist Party and away from the premier and his 31-member Cabinet.

Parliament and the nine-member federal presidency now will likely consult on who will form a new government.

In his speech, broadcast live on Belgrade television, Mikulic refused to accept blame for the country’s economic problems, including a $21-billion foreign debt, 15% unemployment and annual inflation of 250%.

After the 35-minute speech, Parliament refused to take up an option to discuss the resignation, in effect accepting it.

Mikulic said Yugoslavia’s economic problems were inherited “from past decades” and that it was unrealistic for his government “to resolve them in only 2 1/2 years.”

“It is more honorable for the government to resign than to be blamed for all of the country’s ills,” Mikulic said.

In recent days, leading politicians criticized the government’s economic policies, and state-run dailies had called for Mikulic’s immediate replacement.

“Poisonous arrows are being aimed at the government,” Mikulic said.