Hrvoje Zekanovic, the sole MP of the Croatian ultra-conservative Hrast party, was the only person in the Moroccan city of Marrakech on Monday to protest against the adoption of the UN global migrations pact.

Zekanovic arrived outside the venue of the UN conference, holding up a banner reading “Against the Marrakech Document”, signed by the fringe ultra-conservative group Hrvatski Bedem (“Croatian Rampart”).

He told reporters that the reason for his one-man protest was that Prime Minister and the government did not allow a Parliament debate on what he called a “contentious document,” adding that this was directly against “the spirit of democracy and parliamentarianism.”

The conference on migrations and the global pact, expected to be endorsed by more than 150 countries later on Monday, was opened by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

Croatia, which is expected to support the agreement, is represented at the conference by Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic after President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had backed out from going to the conference.

In July this year, all 193 UN member nations except the United States said they supported the agreement. However, Hungary led by anti-immigrant Prime Minister Viktor Orban later backed out, and was joined by Austria, who cited sovereignty concerns.

Other countries who pulled out include Australia, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Estonia, Israel, Latvia, Poland, Slovakia, and Switzerland.

Zekanovic, a former geography teacher, said he was not surprised by the fact that he was the only protester there, saying that other countries “with developed critical thinking” had rejected the document beforehand.

“Countries that we mostly look up to have declined to endorse this document, and I don’t don’t why other countries haven’t done that too. I think this document will be discussed a lot going forward, and I think somebody will notice that Zekanovic was the only one here to protest this,” he said.

Zekanovic added that he was against the agreement because it might “liberalise migrations” and cause additional costs which countries supporting it would have to shoulder.

Follow N1 via mobile apps for Android | iPhone/iPad | Windows| and social media on Twitter | Facebook.