Zagreb - After a two-month summer recess, the Croatian Parliament on Tuesday opened its new regular, 12th session.
Parliament adopted an agenda containing almost 150 items. SDP MP Marija Lugarić and independent MP Josip Jurčević objected to the proposed fast-track procedure for amendments to the Higher Education and Scientific Activity Act, but the ruling majority supported the fast-track procedure.
The MPs then started the new parliamentary season with Question Time, putting questions to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and his ministers.
"This will certainly be a serious, tough political contest with a lot of verbal harshness. I expect the opposition to attack, the ruling majority to defend the government's positions, and the government to explain what it is doing and what it will do. I only hope that there won't be the kind of insults and slander that we often hear," Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković said ahead of the session and Question Time, at which the issue of illegal waste is expected to be the dominant topic.
MP Dalija Orešković (DOSiP) warned at the outset that the Parliament's Secretariat had, "on the basis of a non-existent authority," taken away her right to ask a question during Question Time.
"When the HDZ has nothing else left to steal, it resorts to taking away MPs' right to ask questions. Clearly, the prime minister is afraid that I might repeat what 100,000 people told him at the protest: step down and call an early election," she said.
Jandroković said there was nothing controversial in her case and that this was a practice that had been applied for the past six or seven years under the new Rules of Procedure. "The Rules of Procedure were changed with the aim of enabling independent MPs to ask questions as well, and this time the three independent MPs did not agree among themselves on who should ask the question, so the Secretariat held a draw as the fairest method," he replied.
During the afternoon sitting, Parliament will discuss decisions by the Credentials and Privileges Commission (MIP) and vote on changes to the composition of parliamentary benches – the termination of the term of HDZ MP Danijela Blažanović, who will be replaced by Marija Vrhovski, and the activation of the parliamentary term of SDP MP Marko Krička, replacing Ivana Ribarić Majanović.
After that, Prime Minister Plenković will brief Parliament on the regular meeting of the European Council held on 18 and 19 June.
The new, 12th session will run until October 30.