Member of parliament from the Croatian Sovereignists party, Marko Milanovic Litre, said on Saturday that his party was launching a campaign for a referendum on the introduction of the euro, criticising the government for ignoring citizens' opinion on the matter.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujcic and a whole set of Brussels bureaucrats have decided on their own that Croatia should join the euro area, Milanovic Litre said in a Facebook post, noting that his party had launched a campaign to protect the national currency, the kuna.

“Referendum is the only way to accomplish that,” he said.

Criticising Plenković and his government’s attitude to referendum initiatives and what he called disregard for citizens’ role in them, Milanovic Litre said that that attitude was evidenced by Plenkovic’s recent statement that “from a formal and legal point of view, a referendum on the introduction of the euro was already held in 2012 and a new one is not necessary.”

The MP said that ballots for the 2012 referendum on Croatia’s accession to the EU, to which Plenkovic was referring, featured only one question: “Are you in favour of Croatia’s accession to the European Union?” and that the referendum campaign made no mention of accession to the euro area.

The Croatian people have the right to state their opinion on all important topics that affect their lives, notably decisions whereby a part of their hard-won sovereignty is ceded to Brussels, said Milanovic Litre, adding that Croatia was poorly prepared for EU membership.