Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic said on Monday he believed that President Ivo Josipovic meant well when he advocated an integral constitutional reform, but added that it would be difficult to find the required two-thirds majority in parliament for that, and that the ruling coalition did not intend to spend energy on that.
"That's not something we intend to spend energy on. We won't stand in the way of that. Generally, we have nothing against it, but at this moment it's a little surprising," Milanovic said in a chat via Twitter on the occasion of the government's first two years in office.
He does not believe that broad constitutional changes in the election year will get the required support in parliament. He recalled that the government had proposed changing only the part of the Constitution pertaining to the statue of limitations on first degree murders, but said that this motion was considerably expanded in parliament with other parties' demands.
"I believe that the president has good ideas and intentions, but it's parliament's decision. I don't know what will happen with this initiative, nothing needs to happen. Parliament decides on that."
Milanovic said the Constitution was "sustainable" and dismissed Josipovic's statement that "the prime minister hasn't read the Constitution to the end." "I took part twice in the amendment of the Constitution," he added.
He recalled that alongside the president and one-fifth of MPs, the government was also an authorised sponsor of constitutional amendments, but said the procedure should be left to parliament.
"I'm sure the president read the Constitution and that we understand it in the same way. Constitutional changes should be returned to parliament."
The Twitter users wanted to know if MPs would be elected from open lists in parliamentary elections, and how to avoid considerable departures in the number of voters by constituency.
Milanovic said open slates were possible but that political parties could manipulate with such an election system too by putting known people at the top of the lists and people about whom voters knew nothing at the bottom.
As for the size of the constituencies, he said minimal corrections were necessary, but only after electoral rolls were cleaned up because, in the big constituencies, there were many voters who did not actually reside there.
"Fundamental changes of the election law are not planned. The election system is what it is. It provides for a certain representation and stability of the authorities."
Asked if the government planned to change the contract with the Holy See, Milanovic said the contract could be changed but that, "as far as I'm concerned, this isn't on the agenda at the moment."
The PM reiterated that he expects economic growth in 2014, but also that part of the jobless without skills to make them competitive "won't find a job in the first employment wave."
He said that part of the people on the dole refused physical labour but that "you can't make anyone pick up an axe or a hoe and go digging."
(Hina)
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