Despite disgruntlement from the opposition and calls to scrap the procedure the parliament on Wednesday sent the Maritime Domain and Seaports Bill to the second reading.

Ahead of the vote, the Opposition once again called for the bill to be withdrawn from procedure claiming that it is an equivocal, unacceptable and dangerous law, and they again voiced anticipation that some public beaches will no longer be accessible to the public.

Experts and the interested public are against the law. Send it back for review and do not force it, Davor Dretar (DP party) and Emil Daus (IDS) appealed.

Anka Mrak-Taritas (Centre and GLAS) said that the bill did not deserve support in the first reading. It needs to go back to the drawing board because by trying to resolve one mess it creates a new one.

Pedja Grbin (SDP ) said that in a country dependent on tourism, the Maritime Domain Bill is the topic of all topics and it is not without reason that everyone has risen up against it.

Katarina Peovic (HSS and RF) claimed that the bill enables the privatisation of the maritime domain and makes it inaccessible for a large part of the population.

Ivana Kekin (Green-Left bloc) assessed that it is a “law of dangerous intentions.”

“You have been convincing us for weeks that we are all misreading your bill, which for the first time in Croatia will enable what was everyone’s to become someone else’s,” she said and added that the only thing that matters to the ruling majority is how to better market the coast. Construction on the maritime domain and the fencing off beaches and reduced access to beaches will also be allowed, she added.

Marija Selak-Raspudic (Most party) claims that the law is harmful and recalled that the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts rejected that bill and requested that a new one be written. “It’s not just about the beaches, the beaches are just a smoke screen where through a lien as a real right you will give our common good, maritime good to the management of banks,” she said.

The law should be sent to second reading despite the disgruntlement of the opposition, said Josip Boric (HDZ), who underscored that the bill aims to fix the mess in the maritime domain. He called on the opposition not to politicise and not to scare people. “Beaches will not be fenced off,” he underlined.