President Milanović: The HDZ Is on Trial at the Supreme Court and They Care Very Much about Who Is at the Helm of the Supreme Court

The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović participated today in a ceremony held in Osijek on the occasion of the 30^th anniversary of the 106^th Brigade of the Croatian National Guard, the Day of Osijek defenders and the Day of the Croatian Volunteer Defenders of Osijek-Baranja County, and afterwards issued a statement to the media.

Asked about a new public call for the election of the president of the Supreme Court, he replied: “That is a public call, an unconstitutional category, very harmful and unintelligent because now it is evident that it will have to be repeated. This prevents me from reaching a prior agreement and discussing the candidate with the main stakeholders, namely the president of the largest party, the HDZ, and some others in Parliament. The only thing left for me to do is to pick a candidate who applied to the public call. Otherwise the entire public call is a mockery. Politics require a degree of intelligence higher than the room temperature. I am referring to those who enact laws, laws that are explicitly unconstitutional. Some other majority will come to Parliament, that law will be amended, I supposed they will coordinate it with the Constitution, which is clear. This was done to limit the (former) president, not me”.

Reminding that the controversial law was enacted during the term of President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, President Milanović continued: “Damage was done. And now we have something that some call constitutional crisis, and I call crisis of legitimacy. The person that will fill the void is someone with no legitimacy. It is a judge they agreed on in line with the annual work schedule, it is not in accordance with the Constitution”.

President Milanović warned that the ruling HDZ party is in a conflict of interest because the Supreme Court will be ruling on the accountability of the party. “As an organization they are being tried again for the crime of plundering the state. I am not the one who charged or convicted them. They care very much about who is at the helm of the Supreme Court. That person can always have a certain amount of influence, this is why it is a problem. That is what happened, who could have imagined that one of the largest Croatian political parties would be in the situation of being prosecuted by the Croatian state for the systemic robbing of Croatian voters and state property. This is still before the court, the Supreme Court and it is normal – when Plenković and his clique deliberate on that – it is their business interest. I have no business interest, my interest is that this person be stable, that they can overcome resistance. Like let’s say Ms. Đurđević, not to allow them to intimidate her, especially when there is nothing to be afraid of. There aren’t many people like that, like I said here, a few good people and we have a few right people”, President Milanović concluded.