The parliamentary group of the green-left bloc and the We Can! platform on Wednesday welcomed the Constitutional Court ruling abolishing the so-called epidemiological amendments to Parliament's Rules of Procedure and declaring them unconstitutional.

“We are aware that Parliament needs to adapt to the pandemic emergency, but the Constitutional Court rightly decided that Parliament’s legitimacy stems from the trust vested in it by the people and that MPs exercise their functions primarily by participating in discussions at sessions. As also noted by the Constitutional Court, online voting has shown that there are technical options which Parliament has used to adapt to the emergency situation,” the opposition group said.

They recalled that the ruling majority led by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) had limited the possibility for MPs to take part in sessions, shortening the time for debate and considerably reducing the possibility of replying.

Now they expect the ruling majority to adopt, in consultation with the opposition, the arrangement allowing all MPs to participate in Parliament’s business on an equal footing as proposed by the green-left bloc.

They expressed their discontent with the fact that the Constitutional Court had completely ignored their request for the Constitutional Court session on these amendments to be open to the public.

The request for assessment of the constitutionality of the amendments was filed by 35 opposition MPs.