MP Arsen Bauk of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) said on Tuesday, after a new round of consultations on constitutional changes, that the ruling coalition would not be able to secure the two-thirds majority needed to change the constitution unless it agreed to include the right to abortion in the constitution.

A meeting of the Committee on the Constitution is being prepared to formulate the proposal to amend the Constitution and the Constitutional Court Act. A good proportion of our proposals have been adopted, and we will see whether they will all be adopted. Nothing is over until it is over,” Bauk told a press conference after the meeting between representatives of the ruling coalition and the opposition.

The matters being negotiated concern referendums and the operation of the Constitutional Court, namely that changing the decisions already adopted by the Constitutional Court would require a parliamentary majority greater than a simple majority so that many of the decisions already made, especially those protecting human rights, would be given “an iron foundation” that would endure greater social upheavals.

“If our demand is not approved by the ruling coalition, then their demand will not receive our approval,” Bauk said with reference to the right to abortion, stressing that the “package” of opposition demands was fixed.

The ruling parties have launched an initiative to better define referendum-related matters in the constitution, and the left-wing opposition make their support conditional on the inclusion of the right to abortion in the constitution. The meeting on Tuesday involved the chairman of the Committee on the Constitution, Drazen Bosnjakovic of the ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and representatives of the SDP, Social Democrats, the Green-Left Bloc and ethnic minorities.