ZAGREB, March 12, 2018 - A speech by independent rightwing MP Željko Glasnović on the subject of the Istanbul Convention ratification led to heated exchanges in Parliament on Monday, with a Social Democrat MP earning two reprimands from the chairman.
"We are living in an UDBA-Communist caliphate to some extent. Successors of the former system have found a new ideology, the gender ideology, as a substitute for Marxism and Titoism," Glasnović said. UDBA was the Yugoslav secret police.
Speaking of the Istanbul Convention, he said that all 48 mechanisms protecting women and children from violence were already inscribed in the Croatian laws. "What are gender-neutral laws? Here in the Croatian Parliament we will soon need toilets for men trapped in women's bodies and women trapped in men's bodies... About 200 attacks on girls and women have already been reported in such toilets. This is pure perversion!" Glasnović said.
Bojan Glavašević of the Social Democratic Party (SDP) said that Glasnović's speech was in violation of the Parliament's Rules of Procedure. "An MP must not deviate from the rules of conduct in Parliament and one of those rules is respecting the Constitution. Croatia is a democratic country and not a caliphate. What he said is offensive, apart from being untrue," Glavašević said. What Glasnović said "is an affront to the minorities, sexual minorities, and he deserves a reprimand," he added.
Deputy Speaker Furio Radin, who represents the Italian minority in Parliament and is a member of the ruling coalition, said that Glasnović's speech did not violate the rules of procedure and was an expression of opinion.
Another SDP lawmaker, Gordan Maras, criticised the presiding officer Radin, for not reacting as a minority representative. Visibly upset, Radin responded by saying that he would have been surprised had Maras not dragged the minorities into the debate. "Whoever is in power, when you were in power as well, we are used to such things," Radin said.
"You are ashamed because you support those who are actually not for the Istanbul Convention," Maras continued, to which Radin countered that the SDP had not ratified the document while it itself was in power. The exchange ended in Maras receiving two reprimands for verbal and non-verbal behaviour.
Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) called on the MPs to end the culture of verbal violence and humiliation in the Croatian Parliament.
