The civil society initiative "In the Name of the Family" said on Wednesday it had gathered enough signatures for a referendum to ensure that the Croatian Constitution defined marriage as a union between a woman and a man.
Its volunteers have so far gathered over 380,000 signatures, or more than 10 per cent of the electorate, which is enough for calling the referendum, the initiative's activists announced at a press conference in Zagreb. They reported 50 attacks on their volunteers in Zagreb and Rijeka, and said that the police had been notified.
Dr Zeljka Markic said that the initiative had received 15 million kuna in donations, adding that it was the pecuniary equivalent of man hours put in by its volunteers. When asked if the initiative was financially supported by the Zagreb Archdiocese, she said it was likely that there were Catholic believers among the donors, calling on Catholic dioceses, the leadership of the Islamic community and the Christian Orthodox community to support the initiative.
The activists called on citizens to continue supporting their initiative with their signatures.
Lawmakers from the strongest opposition party, the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), asked Parliament on Wednesday to protect activists from this initiative from physical attacks to which they had been exposed in recent days. They said that it was an unprecedented situation in political and public life in Croatia.
