Zagreb - A population census will be taken in Croatia in spring 2021 under the Population Census Act which Parliament adopted on Friday after a week's delay and this morning's meeting of the ruling coalition.
The census will take place from April 1 to May 7, 2021. It will be organised, coordinated and carried out by the national statistical office, for which the government has allocated HRK 177.3 million.
Last Friday, Parliament postponed the vote on the bill as ethnic minority MPs prevented a quorum after the government, and then MPs turned down their amendments that citizens be allowed to say if they have more than one mother tongue and that the minority quota among census takers be honoured.
The Population Census Act was adopted with 72 votes in favour, four against and 24 abstentions.
Hrvoje Zekanović of the opposition Hrast party urged opposition MPs not to participate in the vote in order to show, he said, if the Croatian-Serb coalition would survive, how minority MPs would do their job and if Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and Serb MP Milorad Pupovac had made a deal.
Božo Petrov of the opposition Most party said the census would show the consequences of government policies in recent years, i.e. the extent of emigration. "Certain politicians demand certain census rights for their minorities in Croatia which don't exist in their home countries."
Arsen Bauk of the opposition SDP said all statements made in parliament today "were insults on ethnic grounds." He asked that the ruling majority say how they resolved their disputes over the bill.
Branko Bačić of the ruling HDZ said the new law was in line with previous censuses. No one's rights are being either reduced or expanded in any way, he said, adding that the opposition's accusations were unfounded and would not succeed in causing a rift in the ruling majority.