Signatures being collected in a bid to keep the kuna

A referendum initiative put forth by a group of right-leaning parties in parliament has gathered nearly half the signatures necessary for their petition to protect and retain the national currency. 

Marko Milanović-Litre, a Croatian Sovereigntists MP and member of a committee organising a referendum campaign to protect the kuna, said in Zagreb on Saturday that 157,000 signatures had so-far been collected for their petition to protect the national currency and that the organisers were satisfied.

"Croatia has the right to decide at what point it will enter the eurozone and when it will adopt the euro single currency. It must be up to the Croatian people to decide their own fate," said Milanović-Litre.

The referendum initiative, which opposes plans to introduce the euro, was launched by the Croatian Sovereignists, the Croatian Party of Rights, the Independents for Croatia and the Renewal Generation.

The organisers are expected to collect 368,867 valid signatures for a referendum by 7 November.

The signatures are being collected at 250 venues across the country, and citizens are asked to say if they want the country's constitution to state that the Croatian unit of currency is the kuna, which is divided into one hundred lipas, and that a decision on changing the unit of currency should be made by voters in a referendum.

The government, meanwhile, says the country is on track to enter the eurozone by early 2023.