Croatians initiate referendum to preserve marriage

ZAGERB, Croatia — In the nation’s first-ever, citizen-initiated referendum, Croatians asked their government to preserve marriage as the union of a man and a woman, by a vote of 65.8 percent in mid-December 2013. Larry Jacobs, a spokesman for the World Congress of Families, observed: “This is all the more impressive in light of the opposition from Croatia’s left-wing government and biased media.”

He noted that supporters of the referendum collected more than 750,000 signatures. 

Two weeks later the Croatian cabinet approved a new law that grants homosexual couples the same rights as heterosexual couples. The law has yet to be passed by parliament.