The Croatian parliament makes public names of 46 MPs who requested certificates on term duration

The Croatian parliament posted on its web site a list of 46 members of the previous, sixth parliament who applied to be issued a certificate on the duration of their term as MP based on which they can request activation of their pension as MPs, Parliament Speaker Boris Sprem said in an interview on Croatian Radio on Monday. The 46 MPs include seven who were elected also to the new, seventh parliament - Vladimir Seks, Stjepan Milinkovic, Ivanka Roksandic and Ana Lovrin of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ); Boro Grubisic of the HDSSB party; and minority MPs Denes Soja and Furio Radin. Sprem said that he agreed with the chair of the parliamentary Committee on Elections and Appointments, Social Democrat Sime Lucin, to meet repeated requests from the press to publish the names of MPs who had requested to be issued certificates on the duration of their term as MPs, which he said did not have to mean that they had activated their pensions as MPs. Asked why they did so, particularly MPs who activated their pensions for only one day, only to resume their duties as MPs in the new parliament, Sprem said he believed they wanted to "make it sure that they would eventually get their pensions." "All those who in this term request activation of their pension, be it for only one day, will exercise that right, and I leave it to citizens who elect... parliamentary deputies to decide for themselves what this is about," Sprem said.