Judiciary Committee to hold session next week

A session of Parliament’s Judiciary Committee has been scheduled for next Wednesday, committee chair Nikola Grmoja confirmed on Friday. 

The aim is to vote on candidates for President of the Supreme Court, a post that has remained vacant since the death of Radovan Dobronić last year.

Grmoja said a vote must take place, stressing that even rejecting all candidates would allow the procedure to move forward. However, he warned there are indications that members of the ruling HDZ could try to block the session by breaking the quorum.

“I believe we need to take a position - even a negative one - on each candidate, so the president can either move forward with the proposal or the process can continue. This current situation only prolongs matters, and Prime Minister Plenković is doing this to continue political horse-trading,” Grmoja said.

The committee interviewed three candidates on December 1: Aleksandra Maganić, Šime Savić, and Mirta Matić, who was nominated by President Zoran Milanović. No vote followed those hearings.

This is already the third public call to fill the position since Dobronić’s death in March 2025. The president of the Supreme Court is elected by a two-thirds majority in parliament, on the proposal of the President of the Republic. Milanović has publicly backed Judge Mirta Matić as his preferred candidate.

While the State Judicial Council has issued a positive opinion on Matić, and the Judiciary Committee is expected to give its view, neither opinion is legally binding on the president or parliament.