The Croatian and European Left has failed the "stress test of fundamental human freedoms" with regard to the coronavirus pandemic, said the Croatian President Zoran Milanovic on Thursday.

“They have miserably failed that stress test. Nobody is advocating for basic human freedoms, everyone is afraid. This is about basic rights that are being lost… that is very dangerous,” he said at a news conference.

He added that he had expected left parties to be the most vocal and responsible in that regard.

“This conformism, fear, that is what throws politics into the gutter. And now we have a referendum campaign, which in my opinion is being promoted in a wrong way, but its first question concerns the essence – basic human freedoms and who in Croatia can restrict them and for how long. Only the parliament can do it,” said Milanovic, adding that this fact was being brutally ignored.

He noted that it did not make any difference who had initiated the referendum campaign.

“It is the Most party, which some describe as a clericalist party, but where is the Left in all of this?” he said.