Several non-governmental associations and non-parliamentary parties on Saturday staged a rally in Zagreb against Croatia's treaties with the Vatican which they labelled as detrimental.

Activist Sanja Sarnavka said that this was the seventh rally of this kind at which protesters criticised the treaties with Vatican as being contradictory with the interests of Croatia. She called upon both believers and nonbelievers to read the texts of those treaties more carefully.

The organisers also accused the Croatian authorities of non-transparent allocation of taxpayers’ money to Church institutions and organisations.

Vesna Puhovski, from the Protagora association, said that the revision of the Croatia-Vatican treaties can be solved only through dialogue.

She said that the treaties imposed the obligations also on nonbelievers to finance the spiritual needs of the faithful.

Academic Vlatko Silobrcic of the Pametno party said that the Vatican treaties were against secularism in society.

The rally brought together an estimated 300 protesters, including two presidential hopefuls: Katarina Peovic and Dalija Oreskovic.