Croatia News - CroatiaPress.com

Zagreb, February 5 (CP) – A Promocija Plus polling agency survey conducted in January has shown that some 71.6 percent of Croats want to see a NATO referendum staged.

The 1,300 surveyed have said that they would rather have a referendum, than the decision on whether Croatia should become a NATO member being made solely by parliament, the latter being supported by just 24.7 percent of those polled.

It is interesting, however, that the support of Croats for NATO membership is growing at the same time, with January seeing 51.1 percent of the surveyed in favour of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation membership, improving membership popularity by three percent compared to the previous month.

Although the efforts of the government to explain the benefits of NATO membership to the population seem to be yielding results, it is evident that those same enlightened people want to make their own decision and not be pushed into anything, which is one of the key elements of democracy that the Croatian government is claiming to be striving for.

However, the government has recently said there would be no referendum on this, as more than 50 percent of the population was supporting NATO membership.

This was also stated by the government spokesperson Zlatko Mehun, who said that no referendum on the issue was being planned, especially not two months before a membership invitation is expected to be extended. He said a quality debate in parliament would be enough.