Deputies of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Parliament on Wednesday protested after SDP MP Nenad Stazic was denied the floor, accusing Deputy Speaker Vladimir Seks of undemocratic behaviour and violation of freedom of speech.
During a debate on a plan for the alignment of Croatia's legislation with EU standards in 2011, Stazic accused the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of un-European behaviour and cited as an example attacks by HDZ officials on SDP deputy Zeljko Jovanovic, at whom he said officials of the HDZ branch in Split on Tuesday hurled insults because of his ethnic background.
"I'm afraid the EU won't admit us for another 50 years if such behaviour doesn't change," Stazic said.
When he asked if such behaviour of HDZ officials was European behaviour, Seks, who was presiding over the session, warned Stazic to stick to the topic of the debate, adding that the topic was not the HDZ's behaviour.
Stazic then objected that Seks was trying to silence him, after which he was denied the flood, with Seks saying that Stazic had breached the standing orders by drifting away from the topic.
The deputy head of the SDP group, Milanka Opacic, then requested a 10-minute break after which she took the floor, saying that Seks was preventing SDP MPs to speak even though they were not saying anything insulting but "stating facts about statements made by some HDZ officials."
Seks responded by saying that Stazic was denied the right to speak only after he ignored his warning.
The opposition parties in the parliament also criticised Foreign Minister Gordan Jandrokovic for failing to take more decisive measures against Italy whose broadcasters have been interfering with digital TV signal reception in Istria, to which Jandrokovic said that he had already sent a letter to his Italian counterpart Franco Frattini and raised the problem from the technical to the political level.
