At the meeting of the Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure, and Political System, the committee chairman Vladimir Šeks stated that 717,149 voter signatures should be accepted as valid and credible, which represents 15.5 percent of the total number of voters. This has created the conditions for calling a referendum on the Labor Law, he added.
Šeks informed the committee members that the Government had submitted to the President of the Parliament and briefly explained the notice of withdrawal of the proposed amendments to the Labor Law. The meeting continued with a discussion in which the Committee should conclude whether to propose to the Parliament that a referendum be indeed called, given that the Government withdrew the proposed amendments to the Labor Law, which the unions mentioned in the introduction as the immediate reason for the request to call a referendum. Since 12 out of 13 members attended the Committee meeting, 6 from HDZ and 6 from the opposition, a stance on the referendum cannot be decided by voting. Minister of Administration Davorin Mlakar previously reported that, based on an earlier conclusion of the Committee, the Ministry verified the submitted signatures.
President Ivo Josipović at Pantovčak, in response to a journalist’s question about whether to insist on the implementation of the referendum, assessed that the issue of the referendum is an extremely political question, due to which we are not only in an economic but also in a political crisis. The unions have shown the strength to mobilize people. This should not be underestimated, he added. The Committee must respect what the citizens have communicated, and no one has the right to ignore that. Regardless of the mistakes in the process of collecting signatures, Josipović concluded. Nevertheless, an impressive number of people signed the union’s proposal. Therefore, I believe that the current situation should be viewed pragmatically. We need to exit the crisis in a way that no one feels defeated, in a way that we find a solution that opens opportunities for the economy, but also protects workers’ rights, he asserted and expressed confidence in a solution that is not a prolongation of the problem for the next few months and a deepening of the economic and political crisis, but a path out of the crisis. And for that, everyone bears responsibility, especially those in power, which is the Government, but also all others on the political scene, he said, not wanting to comment on whether the Government acted cowardly by transferring the decision to the Parliamentary Committee for the Constitution, Rules of Procedure, and Political System. (www.hrt.hr)
