Interviews begin for Constitutional Court candidates

The parliamentary Committee for the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System on Tuesday began interviewing candidates seeking to fill three vacancies on Croatia's Constitutional Court.

Five of the 15 candidates appeared before the committee, while the remaining ten are scheduled to be questioned on Wednesday.

The ruling HDZ hopes Parliament will elect the three new judges before the summer recess. However, the opposition SDP has announced that it will not participate in negotiations over the appointments, accusing Prime Minister Andrej Plenković of undermining previous selection processes.

SDP MP Tonči Restović said the party had decided to stay out of talks with the governing party.

"This time, the SDP will not negotiate candidates with the HDZ, because the process was contaminated on two previous occasions by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. The first time he offered political barter that is, in my opinion, unconstitutional, and in the second he unilaterally proposed three names without agreement from the opposition. Fortunately, this process requires a two-thirds majority, and this is one of those rare instances when the government cannot do whatever it wants," Restović said.

Committee chairman Ivan Malenica of the HDZ rejected the criticism, accusing the SDP of abandoning the very approach it had previously advocated.

"In spite of claiming up until now that candidates should be agreed upon through negotiations, they have now changed their approach to one where they will unilaterally propose candidates, in other words, exactly what they have accused the HDZ of doing," Malenica responded.

The appointment of Constitutional Court judges requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament, meaning neither the government nor the opposition can secure the necessary support on its own. With the two largest parties at odds over the process, uncertainty remains over whether the vacancies will be filled before lawmakers break for the summer.