Towards Greater Secularism in Croatia?

The parliamentary group of the Socijaldemokratska Partija Hrvatske, abbreviated SDP, is working to file a motion that would require Andrej Plenković’s government to modify a bilateral treaty on the relations between Church and State. If this does not work, they are also considering organizing an advisory referendum.

When the country became independent, the Croatian government signed several agreements with the Holy See in 1996, thus granting the Church certain advantages. On the legal level, with the recognition of religious marriage ceremonies, for example, but also on the level of cooperation in education and culture, making religious instruction obligatory in public schools. Other agreements allowed for military chaplaincies to be set up and the State to cover a certain portion of the Church’s costs.

For Rajko Ostojić, one of the leaders of the Social Democrats, this is a “matter of concern”, for since “the world is changing”, it is time to “change the Vatican treaties”. For this leading member of the SDP, the main opposition party, “it is unbelievable that the Church is receiving grants from the state budget.”

If the SDP were to succeed in organizing a referendum based on popular initiative on the matter, it would be “a significant step towards the secularization of society,” observes Vedran Pavlic, an editorialist.