"A referendum with fewer signatures and more petition sites." This is the message of the new Croatian civil initiative of 15 unions and seven civil society organizations to collect signatures for a new referendum—on referendums.

The new initiative, formed by the same associations that organized referendum campaigns against the outsourcing of non-core services in the public sector and the monetization of motorway operators' debt, collects signatures to oppose the New Referendum Act. The petition signing will start on May 30.

"The referendum bill, which has gone through the first reading in Parliament, removes the option for citizens to collect signatures in public places and direct them to government offices. That would mean that the right we have had since 2000, when the Constitution enabled the activities of civil initiatives, would be turned into a dead letter, because unions and NGOs would not be able to collect the required number of signatures," unionist Zeljko Stipic told a press conference.

Stipic added that the initiative would deal with a broader aspect of referendums and raise the question of the number of signatures required to call a referendum, particularly since only one referendum initiative has been successful over the past 10 years, while all other initiatives have fallen through due to failure to collect enough signatures, or after encountering obstacles from the Constitutional Court.

"We are convinced that citizens will recognize the importance of these issues because they are vital to the future of direct democracy. Indirect and direct democracy are not mutually exclusive but complement each other, and those in power, who are here today and gone tomorrow, must realize that there is no government that doesn't need to be corrected for injudicious decisions," Stipic said.