IDS official Damir Kajin told a news conference in Zagreb on Thursday that he found nothing dubious about the law which the Italian Senate recently endorsed.
Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader's claim that the decision of the Italian parliament was made for the election purposes in Italy is too broad, Kajin said, adding that the initiative to amend the said law was adopted by votes from all parliamentary parties in Rome in 2000.
Kajin said that ethnic Italians in Croatia who would apply for Italian citizenship would not be greater Italians or less Croatians because of this act.
"They will ask to be granted citizenship in order to help themselves and their children in a bid to find jobs or solve their status, while in the political sense nothing will change," the IDS parliamentarian said, adding that what could be questionable was whether Croatian Italians should have the right to vote in Italy just as it was questionable whether Croats living outside Croatia should participate in Croatian elections.
Kajin also spoke about Croatia granting citizenship to Croats living in other countries.
In Croatia this is a tacit practice, as every year Croatia grants citizenship to about 15,000 Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Since 1991, a million people living outside Croatia have acquired Croatian citizenship, Kajin said.
The parliamentary representative of ethnic Italians in the Croatian Parliament, Furio Radin, told the news conference that the amended Italian Citizenship Law had emotional rather than political implications.
Given that it was supported by all parties, the amended law is not part of the ongoing pre-election campaign, Radin added.
According to him, he as well as the Croatian Italian Community, have for years insisted on amendments which would make it possible for between 10,000 and 20,000 Italians in Croatia to qualify for Italian citizenship. However, it is not known how many ethnic Italians will apply for Italian citizenship, he added.
"If Croatia gives its citizenship to Croats worldwide, then it must accept that other have the same right," Radin said.