Government representative Darko Nekic in Parliament on Wednesday rejected all opposition amendments to the public holidays and memorial days bill, accepting only two amendments put forward by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

One of the amendments endorsed is nomotechnical, while the other proposes that the Day of Adoption of the Resolution on the Secession of Medjimurje from Hungary be renamed the Day of Unification of Medjimurje with Croatia.

All the amendments will eventually be put to a vote.

MP Arsen Bauk of the opposition of Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that the purpose of the bill was to reinforce the position of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic as the HDZ leader. He added that the bill was also intended for the presidential and parliamentary elections and for the elections within the HDZ.

The SDP claims that by proposing that Statehood Day should again be marked on May 30 the HDZ actually wanted to mark its coming to power.

Bauk said that Independence Day, observed on October 8, should remain a national holiday, while Statehood Day, currently observed on June 25, should be called the Day of Proclamation of Sovereign and Independent Croatia. “Until October 8 Croatia was still part of Yugoslavia, and only thereafter has it been independent,” he said.

Zlatko Hasanbegovic of the Bloc for Croatia insisted that Antifascist Struggle Day, observed on June 22, should be abolished as a national holiday. “It marks an invented event that cannot be confirmed by any relevant historical source,” he said, adding that that day had so far been used for “verbal outbursts and restoration of Yugoslav communism”, notably by the SDP mayor of Sisak.

“This holiday is an integral part of the anti-Croatian and anti-democratic, Yugoslav communist legacy and as such it is contrary to the constitutional values,” Hasanbegovic said, calling for a vote on his amendment “so that no one can say they did not have a chance to state their opinion on the matter.”

Bridge’s Miro Bulj resented the fact that the names of national holidays and memorial days did not include a reference to Greater Serbia aggression. “It’s a fact that all the victims and all the war crimes were on account of the Greater Serbia aggression,” he said.