Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic on Friday rejected criticism by MPs from the ranks of the opposition populist Most party that he was stalling their referendum initiative, saying that the parliamentary Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders, and Political System would probably meet to discuss the matter next week.

“It’s not true that we haven’t launched the procedure. We did so the day after. I sent a letter to the parliamentary committee and it will convene a meeting. It will present its conclusions to the plenary and everything will be done in the legally prescribed time,” Jandrokovic told Most MP Marija Selak-Raspudic.

Selak-Raspudic said that although they had presented the parliament with 410,000 signatures the party had collected in order to launch a referendum on Covid certificates in Croatia, the procedure to call the referendum had not been launched yet.

“The Committee on the Constitution has not even been convened yet to decide who will count the signatures. Why are you toying with the will of the people?” asked Selak-Raspudic.

“A large number of people signed the referendum initiative and we won’t stand idly by and watch you drag out that process,” her party colleague Nikola Grmoja said.

“Stop calling us out. How long did it take you to bring the signatures to the parliament and now you are already putting the pressure on? Everything will be in line with procedure,” Jandrokovic retorted.