March 20 (SeeNews) - Croatia's prime minister Andrej Plenkovic and his closest aides are considering calling an early general election in the summer, as the divide in the ruling HDZ party grows over the Istanbul Convention, local media reported on Tuesday.
Multiple sources close to the top leadership of HDZ told news daily Nacional that Plenkovic met his aides over the weekend to discuss scheduling early elections between July and September, according to the online edition of the daily.
This is a new, major sign that tensions are escalating in HDZ over the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention, Nacional said.
Earlier this month, Plenkovic said Croatia's government is due to discuss the Istanbul Cnvention in two weeks' time, following which the document will be sent to parliament for ratification.
A growing number of MPs from HDZ are said to oppose the document, with some requesting an intra-party referendum which, according to local media reports, Plenkovic won't allow.
Also on Tuesday, Index.hr reported that the Catholic Church has openly joined the rebellion against Plenkovic over the convention. The Croatian news portal added that an announcement was read during Sunday mass at a church in Zagreb, calling for church goers to join a protest against the Istanbul Convention this upcoming weekend.
The Istanbul Convention is based on the understanding that violence against women is a form of gender-based violence that is committed against women because they are women. As of November 2017, it has been signed by all EU member states, and ratified by 16 (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany (effective from 1 February 2018) Italy, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia, Spain and Sweden).