ZAGREB, 22 December, 2021 - Justice Minister Ivan Malenica on Wednesday called out the MOST party for "exerting unnecessary pressure" and said the only question was whether it had collected enough signatures for a referendum.
Speaking to the press, he said a number of constitutional law experts had said a number of times that the referendum petition with a constitutional and a legislative part was pointless and that "it certainly won't be conducive to improving the situation."
The opposition MOST objects to the national COVID-19 crisis management team and wants citizens to answer two questions - if the constitution should establish that a pandemic is a state of affairs in which decisions should be made in parliament by a two-thirds majority, and if COVID certificates should be revoked.
"It should be said clearly that the crisis management team has been adopting decisions based on the law," Malenica said, adding that the Constitutional Court yesterday confirmed it.
The court found that the pandemic protocols are legitimate, rejecting motions to assess the constitutionality of the crisis management team's powers, the COVID certificate mandate, and the testing mandate for healthcare and social welfare staff.
As for MOST's petition, Malenica said "we don't know how many signatures they have, whether they have enough or not."
He expects the party to state the number and deliver the signatures to parliament in the shortest time possible. After that, he said, parliament will authorise the government or another body to determine if enough signatures were collected.
As for the possible establishment of an independent body to count the signatures, Malenica said he would not prejudge any action until the signatures were delivered to parliament.
He would also not prejudge the Constitutional Court's decision on the COVID certificate mandate in the whole public sector.
