Marijan Pavlicek, a member of the Croatian Sovereignists, submitted a motion in parliament on Thursday to deratify the Istanbul Convention, as he holds it responsible "for "the penetration of gender ideology into the legal and educational system".

With the adoption of the Istanbul Convention, “everything has started to go downhill with gender ideology”,” he said at a press conference.

“Example of the penetration of gender ideology into higher education”

Pavlicek sees the introduction of Gender Studies, a new degree programme at the Zagreb Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, as an example of the penetration of gender ideology into higher education and said that such a thing would not have been possible if Croatia had not ratified the Istanbul Convention.

He called on the Minister of Science and Education, Radovan Fuchs, not to approve the introduction of gender studies.

“If the government majority does not put this issue up for discussion, we will start collecting signatures for the deratification of the convention after the summer break,” he added.

Pavlicek “has had enough of the tyranny of a vocal minority over the silent majority”

in 2018, the Croatian Parliament ratified the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, the so-called Istanbul Convention, along with an interpretative declaration stating that “Croatia considers that the provisions of the Convention do not contain an obligation to introduce a gender ideology into the Croatian legal and educational system, nor an obligation to change the constitutional definition of marriage.”

According to Pavlicek, this declaration “has not been able to prevent the penetration of gender ideology into Croatian society”,” so the convention must be deratified.

“I expect the support of all those MPs, including some from the ruling party, especially from the Domovinski pokret party, who have always said that they are against the introduction of gender ideology.”

Pavlicek also said that he “has had enough of the tyranny of a vocal minority over the silent majority”: “Today, everything that is normal is seen by this minority as abnormal, backward, traditional and outdated.”