Leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Davor Bernardic, announced on Monday the party's proposal to change the Constitution, prompted by two petitions currently collecting signatures for separate referendums on revoking the ratification of the Istanbul Convention on violence against women and to change the election law.
Bernardic said that the reason for their initiative is that ever since the 2013 referendum which amended the Constitution to legally define marriage as a union between a man and a woman, Croatia continued to face conservative grassroots initiatives which aim to restrict basic rights and freedoms.
“And that’s what’s happening today, when we are faced with plans to hold a referendum calling for the cancellation of the Istanbul Convention, or to limit voting rights of MPs representing ethnic minorities… We are witnessing attempts to discriminate and limit freedoms that are guaranteed by the Constitution, under the guise of democracy. This scenario wants to discriminate vulnerable groups in the society. Regarding the Istanbul Convention, it is clearly the intention of radical, backwards-looking, forces from the right side of the political spectrum to try to cancel a decision which was made to protect women from domestic violence, and they also want to take on members of the LGBTQ community and everyone whose gender identity may be different,” Bernardic said, and also slammed the initiative to change election law.
“It is no coincidence that such an initiative has been launched right now, and by the same organisations. They seek to abolish the constitutionally guaranteed rights of ethnic minorities. Both of these initiatives are dragging Croatia backwards in terms of civilising standards and personal freedoms. I hereby invite everyone not to fall for tricks and spins used to hide the real motives of these initiatives and not to give their signatures for something that might move Croatia away from other modern and progressive EU countries,” Bernardic added.
SDP’s MP, Pedja Grbin, said that the party’s proposal deals with changing Article 87 of the Constitution which regulates referendums.
“Our proposal has three parts. The first on is to unambiguously define the number of signatures required to be collected by a citizens’ initiative to launch a referendum… We would like for the current number (380,000) to be reduced to 200,000. The second part is to clearly define a range of issues that would not be allowed to be put to any referendums, such as any proposal to limit or reduce human rights and freedoms… Slovenia, which has one of the best legal provisions on referendums, bars referendums on personal freedoms, tax system, budgetary issues, international agreements, defence and national security, as well as parliamentary elections. These should never be put to a referendum,” Grbin explained.
“The third part deals with the majority needed for a decision to be made via a referendum. We propose three ways for this – the first mode would be for regular decisions, which would require agreement of at least 25 percent of the electorate; the second mode would be for so-called organic laws which normally require an ordinary majority in Parliament, and which would require 40 percent of the electorate to vote for it; and the third mode would be for any changes to the Constitution, which would require an ordinary majority, i.e. 50 percent of the electorate plus one vote,” Grbin explained.
The SDP called on all MPs to sign and support their initiative this week, so that the proposal could be introduced into parliament.
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