The Croatian parliament strengthened Andrej Plenkovic’s position by rejecting a no-confidence bid to unseat the deputy premier and ratifying a European convention on violence against women despite conservative protests.
Croatian Premier Andrej Plenkovic scored two important victories on Friday as the country’s parliament rejected the opposition’s no-confidence request against the Deputy Prime Minister and Economy Minister, Martina Dalic, and ratified the ‘Istanbul Convention’ on violence against women despite conservative protests against it.
Parliament’s votes on these two controversial issues was a crucial test of Plenkovic’s political strength, the stability of his government as well as his control over his own party, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ.
Out of these two important issues, the more vital one for the future of Plenkovic and his government was the vote on Council of Europe’s so-called ‘Istanbul Convention’ on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Although the main purpose of the Convention is to help stop violence against women, it became a defining issue for the political future of the Croatian government and its premier, after conservative forces – including hardline parts of the HDZ as well as the influential Catholic Church – rallied against it, organising several public protests, the last gathering over 10,000 people in the coastal city of Split the previous day.
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