Judiciary Committee adopts a decision on candidates for the Supreme Court

The issue of electing judges to the Constitutional Court and the President of the Supreme Court has been dragging on for months. The HDZ had insisted that the two processes be joined, while the opposition refused - each side blaming the other for holding the judiciary hostage.

In parliament, MPs discussed the election of three judges to the Constitutional Court on Wednesday. The proposed candidates are Supreme Court judge Željko Pajalić and lawyer Mladen Sučević, who are backed by the parliamentary majority, and Goran Selanec, whose mandate on the court recently expired and who is considered to be the opposition's candidate.

For SDP MP Saša Đujić the attempt to link the two proceedings was an attempt to establish political control over the judiciary: "The Constitutional Court does not belong to the HDZ, the SDP, the parliamentary majority or the opposition. What we have today is an attempt to transform a two-thirds majority into pressure on the opposition. We have an attempt to supplant dialogue with ultimatums. We have an attempt to tell parliament; here are the names, accept them. If you don't then you're to blame for the blockade. That is not agreement. That is blackmail."

"You have transformed the Constitutional Court and its judges into a toy. A toy one side plays with for a while, and then the other, and then all together. One side is waiting for a signal from the Office of the President, while the other is waiting for a signal from Government," noted and MOST MP Ante Kujundžić.

However, later in the day, in its eighth try, parliament's Judiciary Committee finally voted on the candidates for the President of the Supreme Court. Three candidates, Aleksandra Maganić, Šima Savić and Mirta Matić, were given positive opinions. Their names were then forwarded to President Zoran Milanović, who had announced months earlier that he would propose Matić for the post.

Committee chair and MOST MP Nikola Grmoja expressed his surprise that the committee members from the parliamentary majority had finally allowed a vote to pass: "Five months after questioning the candidates, the ruling majority has finally decided to give its opinion on those candidates. They had removed the item from the agenda seven times, I guess the HDZ decided to change its tactics."

However, committee co-chair and HDZ MP Nikola Mažar, once again accused the opposition of foul play: "Even today, we once again saw that those who had blocked the election of Constitutional Court judges continued to use the Supreme Court for that purpose. At no point did we allow the opposition to make the Supreme Court conditional to the appointment of judges to the Constitutional Court."

Source: HRT