Since July last year lawmakers have been fined with more than HRK 40,000 for unjustified absences from plenary sessions, and not one month has gone by throughout the past year without at least one lawmaker being absent without justification.

The most unjustified absences took place in December 2017, a total of 27.

Nine lawmakers were absent for one to three days in July when the Parliament met for a total of nine days.

The lawmaker with the highest number of unjustified absences is former Social Democratic Party (SDP) MP Ivan Klarin. He was absent 17 times before he withdrew from parliament to take over the office of Mayor of Tisno.

MPs clocked up a significant number of inexcusable absences despite the fact that the law and the stance of the relevant parliamentary Elections, Appointments and Administration Committee provides a fairly flexible lee-way for justified absences.

Penalties for inexcusable absences were introduced following a motion by the Bridge party and it implies a deduction of HRK 150 for each day of absence from an MP’s flat-rate allowance of HRK 1500 per month.  

(1 EUR = 7.55 HRK)