The President of the Croatian Trade Union Association, Ozren Matijašević, stated today that the Constitutional Court’s decision that there are no prerequisites for a referendum on amendments to the Labor Law is “unconstitutional and illegal” because the Constitution clearly stipulates that citizens have the right to decide on all matters within the jurisdiction of the Croatian Parliament through a referendum.
In this regard, it is completely irrelevant that the proposal to amend the Labor Law has been withdrawn from parliamentary procedure, Matijašević asserted in a statement to reporters in front of the Croatian Parliament. The Constitutional Court acted contrary to the provisions of the Constitution, which is why I said in yesterday’s statement, anticipating such a decision, that it is a “farcical decision of a farcical body,” said Matijašević. Therefore, HUS, as announced, will propose the abolition of the Constitutional Court and the transfer of its powers to the Supreme Court based on experiences from Anglo-Saxon legal systems.
The unions anticipated such a decision, guided by the previous work of the Constitutional Court, which, when it comes to the requests of multiple citizens, has always made decisions contrary to their requests, Matijašević asserted. Such a way of working by constitutional judges is “a consequence of how they came to their positions in the Constitutional Court, thanks to the voting machinery,” Matijašević said. He also asserted that by this decision, hundreds of thousands of Croatian citizens who signed the request for a referendum have been declared second-class citizens, as their right to direct expression has been denied.
