Zoran Milanovic, the Prime Minister of Croatia, has stated his Social Democratic Party is aiming to recognize same-sex marriages unions, fulfilling a campaign promise made in December.
According to Yahoo! News, Milanovic told reporters: “We are talking about registered partnerships, which is a somewhat higher standard than what we have now.”
He reminded them that it was part of his party’s campaign: “That was our program. I hope that the people of Croatia accept it, it’s simply a form of social empathy and decency and expanding freedom.”
The conservative opposition party has vowed to fight Milanovic on the issue. The Gay Pride Parade goes down in June in Croatia’s second largest city, Split. In the past, the parade has been met with violent opposition, owing to the country’s very strong Catholic roots.
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Robert in NYC
This story is a bit confusing. Croatia isn’t about to recognize same-sex marriages but registered partnerships which aren’t marriages. The two are vastly different. Slovenia, its neighbor will probably legalize equal marriage before Croatia.
david
They want to give gay people the sam rights, but don’t want to do it calling it marriage and according to the family law, because they know they would face strong negative reactions from the opposition as well as from the catholic church if they called it marriage and incorporate it in the existing family law. To avoid this, they will bring up a new law regulating same sex partnerships. If they success, it would be a great step forward.
J Stratford
This is already a risky move in a poor European country pretty much dominated by the Roman Catholic church.
This guy has balls of steel. We should be touring Croatia’s dalmatian coast instead of those nasty Russian cities
Rooney
It’s better than nothing, especially given that there are people there who would kill him just for saying it.
Kokolo
@Rooney: Kill him just for saying it? Oh puh-lease. Don’t be insulting and idiotic. You obviously don’t know what you’re talking about.
@J Stratford: Dominated is a strong word. People are religious but still far from the state you claim. Interesting for me as a Croatian to read such comments from people who obviously have no idea whatsoever about Croatia.