ZAGREB, Dec 22 (Hina) - Nine years ago, only eight months after the first round of the first free multi-party elections, Croatia had a constitution, which the Croatian parliament proclaimed on 22 December 1990. Croatia then got a
basic legislative document which reaffirmed its national sovereignty and defined it as an indivisible democratic and social state. The parliament president who had the honour to proclaim the "Christmas Constitution" was Zarko Domljan.
ZAGREB, Dec 22 (Hina) - Nine years ago, only eight months after the
first round of the first free multi-party elections, Croatia had a
constitution, which the Croatian parliament proclaimed on 22
December 1990.
Croatia then got a basic legislative document which reaffirmed its
national sovereignty and defined it as an indivisible democratic
and social state. The parliament president who had the honour to
proclaim the "Christmas Constitution" was Zarko Domljan.#L#
The "Christmas Constitution" reaffirmed the democratic changes
which took place at the multi-party parliamentary elections in the
spring of 1990, and set the foundation for Croatia as a democratic
state.
That Constitution marked the final break-up with the communist, so
called socialist, self-governing, one-party system, which was
founded on public ownership and planned economy, the first Croatian
President, the late Franjo Tudjman, had said at the first
parliament session on 22 December 1990.
The new Constitution in legal terms fully ranked Croatia among
sovereign European states to which it had always belonged, Tudjman
had said.
After seven years in force and different historical circumstances,
the "Christmas Constitution" was changed in December 1997. The most
important alteration referred to the constitutional ban on the
initiation of proceedings which would join Croatia with other
states into associations which would or could contribute to the
reformation of a Yugoslav federation, i.e. any form of Balkan state
ties.
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