President Milanović: It will do Croatia good if Parliament appoints Dobronić Supreme Court President

“On the whole, this is an activity in which people present programmes as if they are candidates for Prime Minister, and they are not. The Constitution is very clear. The President recommends, Parliament accepts or rejects, and before that some bodies give an opinion which is not binding. I don’t know what isn’t clear in the Croatian Constitution. Had we abided by the Constitution, we could have agreed, that’s not immoral. There was a public call, what should I do? I have to recommend someone. The candidate is judge Dobronić and I think it will do Croatia good if Dobronić is appointed. If not, it is up to them to explain why. I explained why he should be appointed, he is an excellent judge,” said President Zoran Milanović, commenting on yesterday’s presentation of Supreme Court Presidential candidates’ programmes before the parliamentary judiciary committee.

The President also commented on the anti-corruption operation by USKOK (Croatian State Prosecutor’s Office for the Suppression of Organized Crime and Corruption) and the police in Međimurje, in which Međimurje County Prefect Matija Posavec was arrested and SDP MP Stjepan Kovač was suspected of taking part in illegal activities. “I know nothing about this other than what was published in the media. These are those complicated moments when the public knows nothing. DORH (State Attorney’s Office) and USKOK know, they need to be trusted. I hope that for the sake of public confidence this will end somehow and that these arrests will be justified. If not, public confidence will erode. The worst thing is when the aftereffects last for years, when there are no indictments and when people are on trial for 15 years. I do not support anyone, but if people are detained, if they are deprived of freedom, then I believe that those who detained them did it for good reason,” said President Milanović.

Journalists also asked the President of the Republic to comment on the announced visit of Montenegrin President Milo Đukanović to Croatia. President Milanović pointed out that President Đukanović was coming at his invitation and added: “The topics of conversation will be those that would be otherwise. Given what has been happening and is happening in Montenegro, they will also be somewhat different. Montenegro is above all a neighbouring country and only then a member of NATO, and it is our concern. I do not enthrone bishops and archbishops in Cetinje and Nikšić. That is not my job or of any politician in Croatia. In Montenegro, fortunately, it ended without human casualties, and I believe that it will remain so. This is my way of supporting the concept of a civil, secular Montenegro. We certainly do not interfere in the internal affairs of other neighbouring countries. What I am doing towards Bosnia and Herzegovina is not interference, it is just one position that is clear and that I am repeating all the time. There are more Croats living in Bosnia and Herzegovina than there are Montenegrins in Montenegro, let alone Serbs in Montenegro. We know our limit and some have obviously not learned that yet.”