Despite passage of a gay marriage ban,
the Croatian government vowed on Monday that it would not abandon
plans for a law allowing civil partnerships for gay couples.
Sixty-six percent of voters on Sunday
answered yes to the question, “Do you agree that marriage is
matrimony between a man and a woman?” The results mean that
Croatia's constitution will be amended to define marriage as a
heterosexual union.
The intense campaign deeply divided the
predominantly Roman Catholic nation.
“This referendum was a pre-emptive
strike against the possibility of introducing gay marriage in
Croatia,” Franko Dota, a political analyst, told The
New York Times. “This was a referendum to humiliate the
gay population, and to strike against the progress of the past
decades.”
Opponents of the marriage ban have
called it a major setback for the country, which joined the European
Union in July.
Catholic group In the Name of the
Family gathered more than 700,000 signatures to put the question on
the ballot. Catholics, which make up nearly 90 percent of the
population, were urged to support the measure.