ZAGREB, 28 Aug, 2021 - The political secretary of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Ante Sanader, said on Saturday that the fake sovereignists were scaring the people about the euro", however they themselves had rushed to the European Parliament to get earnings in that currency.

Sanader wrote on his Facebook account that there was no need for any referendum about the introduction of the euro in Croatia.

There is no need and no legal possibility for a referendum on Croatia's admission to the euro area and the changeover to the euro, as the decision on that matter was made in 2012 when Croatia held a referendum on its EU membership and when Croatian parliament ratified the EU admission treaty.

At  the 22 January 2012 referendum, 66.27% of Croatian voters supported Croatia's accession to the European Union. With 136 "Yes" votes, Croatian Parliament unanimously ratified on 9 March the Accession Treaty of the Republic of Croatia to the European Union.

On Saturday morning a member of parliament from the Croatian Sovereignists party, Marko Milanović Litre, said that his party was launching a campaign for a referendum on the introduction of the euro, criticising the government for ignoring citizens' opinion on the matter.

Sanader also recalls that a member of Sovereignist party, Ladislav Ilčić whom he branded as "great anti-European" grabbed the first opportunity to become a member of the European Parliament.

 "Obviously, fake sovereignists including Milanović Litre cannot understand and do not know what the present-day struggle for the national interests means and what the present-day sovereignism looks like," Sanader wrote, citing some of the benefits of Croatia's membership of the European Union, such as the EU-funded project of the construction of Pelješac Bridge that connects the southernmost Croatian with the rest of the country.

He also mentioned the allocation of 25 billion euros from the EU for Croatia's development in the next years.

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ZAGREB, 28 Aug, 2021 - A member of parliament from the Croatian Sovereignists party, Marko Milanović Litre, said on Saturday that his party was launching a campaign for a referendum on the introduction of the euro, criticising the government for ignoring citizens' opinion on the matter.

Prime Minister Andrej Plenković, Croatian National Bank Governor Boris Vujčić and a whole set of Brussels bureaucrats have decided on their own that Croatia should join the euro area, Milanović Litre said in a Facebook post, noting that his party had launched a campaign to protect the national currency, the kuna.

"Referendum is the only way to accomplish that," he said.

Criticising Plenković and his government's attitude to referendum initiatives and what he called disregard for citizens' role in them, Milanović Litre said that that attitude was evidenced by Plenković's recent statement that "from a formal and legal point of view, a referendum on the introduction of the euro was already held in 2012 and a new one is not necessary."

The MP said that ballots for the 2012 referendum on Croatia's accession to the EU, to which Plenković was referring, featured only one question: "Are you in favour of Croatia's accession to the European Union?" and that the referendum campaign made no mention of accession to the euro area.

The Croatian people have the right to state their opinion on all important topics that affect their lives, notably decisions whereby a part of their hard-won sovereignty is ceded to Brussels, said Milanović Litre, adding that Croatia was poorly prepared for EU membership.

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