The Croatian national parliament on Friday celebrated its day in memory of 30 May 1990 when the first multiparty Croatian highest law-making body was established.
ZAGREB, May 30 (Hina) – The Croatian national parliament on Friday celebrated its day in memory of 30 May 1990 when the first multiparty Croatian highest law-making body was established.
“30 May, as Croatian Parliament Day, will be permanently engraved into the golden book of Croatian history to remind us of the fundamental role of the Sabor as the highest law-making and representative body of Croatian citizens. Eighteen years ago, the constitution of the first freely elected multiparty parliament paved the way for a modern Croatian democracy,” said Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic at a ceremony in the parliament’s building.
He recalled that in the last decade of the 20th century, Europe became a scene of changes and aspirations for freedom and democracy and an area free of divisions, walls and free of belligerent groups and opposed ideologies, and in those circumstances Croatia recognised its fateful moment and responded to it promptly.
At that time, and ever since then, the Sabor has been a place where crucial decisions have been made, shaping the future of Croatia, and the Sabor has been the guardian of the sovereignty of the Croatian people, Bebic said, citing the promulgation of the Christmas Constitution in 1990 and the parliament’s decision to sever ties with the then Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and to focus on the international promotion of Croatia.
Currently, the Sabor is focused on the upgrading of the national legislative system with the aim of reaching the democratic and economic standards of developed countries.
The national parliament is particularly busy adjusting its laws and regulations to the European union acquis communautaire, Bebic said in his speech.
Present at the ceremony were Croatia’s top officials, President Stjepan Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, representatives of the judiciary, religious dignitaries, former parliamentarians and other guests.
On this occasion, busts of the first Croatian President Franjo Tudjman and of the late Cardinal Franjo Kuharic, the primate of the Croatian Catholic Church during the 1991-1995 war, were unveiled in the parliament’s building.
(Hina) ms