‘Referendum decision to be written into constitution’

The definition of marriage as “matrimony between a man and a woman” was adopted by referendum on December 1 with the backing of 65.76 per cent of the vote.

Even though the turnout was only 36 per cent, the definition will now be written into the constitution, and effectively block any attempt to introduce same-sex marriage. For Vecernji list —

… in practice, the referendum will not make any change to the statute of marriage, which, until now has been defined as the union between a man and a woman. However, it will likely result in a shake-up of Croatia’s political system. It probably amounts to the most major and radical change to have emerged in the Croatian political landscape since the establishment of democracy, which has enabled us to grow accustomed to the decorative alternation of the [conservative nationalist] HDZ and the [ruling social-democratic] SDP.

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