As soon as the government sent its draft amendments into parliamentary procedure, five trade union federations expressed their opposition and launched a campaign to collect enough signatures to get a referendum against the government's proposal. On Thursday morning they announced that they had secured more than the required number of signatures.
Asked by the anchorman of the national broadcaster's (HTV) prime time news on Thursday evening whether the draft amendments to the labour legislation would wait for the organisation of a referendum or whether they would went on to be passed, the parliament's head said that there were no technical or any other reasons not to put them on the parliament's agenda.
"I think that a motion to call a referendum must be in accordance with the law as this is a test of democracy," Bebic said recalling that Croatia had held its first referendum on independence in 1991 and that the second referendum must be organised in compliance with all relevant rules.
Commenting on dilemmas whether the referendum should be held in accordance with the previous constitution or with the recently amended constitution, Bebic said that according to the opinion of "relevant legal experts", the process (of collecting signatures) began under the old law and that the entire process regarding the referendum should continue in line with that law.