President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic commented on Saturday an announcement by a civil initiative to change the election law that their petition collected enough signatures for a referendum to be called.
“My general stance on referendums is to stick to the Venice Commission’s recommendations, not to interfere with them. It is my firm stance that the will of people must be respected,” said the president, adding that people “obviously showed” by providing those signatures they wanted the changes to take place. “They also demonstrated a wish for changes to the election law,” she added.
The Constitutional Court has 30 days to decide whether the questions in the proposed referendum are in line with the Croatian Constitution, and allow or veto the referendum according to the decision.
Asked if she would discuss the matter with the Prime Minister, Grabar-Kitarovic said the meeting would certainly take place and that “she cannot imagine a situation where we wouldn’t talk.”
Related news
The president, who took part in a ceremony marking the Day of the Osijek-Baranja County on Saturday, said it was a responsibility of everyone to stop the trend of emigrations.
“Of course, it is the responsibility of all of us in the country, both at the state level and at the level of regional and local self-government, to stop the trends of emigrations,” she noted, adding that social climate, clientelism and nepotism were cited by her collocutors as the main problem behind this problem.
According to her, certain measures to stop this trend are possible in the near future. “But, as you know, it takes some time for certain measures, even up to 20 or 30 years,” she concluded.
