HDZ blocks the 7th attempt to adopt a position on President of the Supreme Court

Parliament's Judiciary Committee has failed for a seventh time to adopt an opinion on the candidate for the President of the Supreme Court. The HDZ-led ruling majority once again voted to remove the item from the agenda again, stating that the conditions to adopt a position had not been met.

The HDZ is insisting that the election of the President of the Supreme Court be linked to the appointment of three judges to the Constitutional Court. And while the HDZ says it will continue to talk with opposition leaders, the SDP and Možemo! have said they will not participate in any talks.

“If the process of electing a new President of the Supreme Court is not completed before the talks on the three Constitutional Court judges, we will be enabling the HDZ to use the President of the Supreme Court as leverage in negotiations about the Constitutional Court judges,” said Možemo MP Sandra Benčić.

SDP MP Mišel Jakšić called on the HDZ to come clean and simply say they want complete control over the judiciary: “Let them muster up the courage and say outright that they don't want the President to have any Constitutional powers whatsoever and that they are going to change the Law on the Courts and Constitutional Law, because they can't live with the fact that he beat us at the elections and that he was elected directly by the vast majority of the citizens of Croatia.”

For his part Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković claimed that talks with the opposition were ongoing and that he was hopeful that the three Constitutional Court judges would be appointed by April 21st, and that an agreement on the President of the Supreme Court would follow.

Source: HRT