Constitutional Court says Zoran Milanovic can only run for PM’s post in April parliamentary elections if he resigns as head of state first.
Croatia’s Constitutional Court has said President Zoran Milanovic may not participate in any party political activities while performing his duties, which excludes him from being a candidate on any list for the elections or being nominated as a candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
Last Friday, Milanovic announced that he would run in the April 17 elections as the list holder of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, in the first constituency. He and SDP president Pedja Grbin announced this at a press conference.
But Court President Miroslav Separovic clarified that Milanovic’s candidacy while holding the office of president on any list for the election, highlighting him as a candidate for Prime Minister or other position, is incompatible with his constitutional position.
He added that, if he runs for election to parliament or appears as a candidate for Prime Minister, he must immediately submit his resignation as head of state to the President of the Constitutional Court. In that case, the post of Interim President is assumed by the president of parliament, the Court concluded.
After the press conference of the president of the Constitutional Court, Milanovic reacted with only one sentence on Facebook. “Rivers of justice are coming!” he wrote on Monday afternoon.
Milanovic repeated on Sunday that he would not resign as President and would be the prime ministerial candidate of SDP in the elections while awaiting the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding his candidacy. He said that he would remain a candidate for Prime Minister regardless of whether he remained on the SDP list or not.
“I hope we will not get into a situation where the decision to call the election, the list of candidates, is annulled,” Separovic warned.
“The State Election Commission is responsible for the conduct of elections and I hope it will carry out its task as before. I will not answer hypothetical questions [about] what will happen in future, whether we will have to resort to constitutional powers… There are enough instruments to conduct the campaign and there is no need for unconstitutional means to be resorted to and for the Constitution to be violated,” Separovic said.
“We must respect the court’s decision. As of today, I must not say Milanovic is a candidate, that he will receive a mandate to form the government and that Milanovic will be Prime Minister,” said SDP president Grbin later on Monday.
“[But] electoral legitimacy comes from the will of the voters. As much as I am not allowed to talk about it, the will of the voters will be clear. They have banned tens of thousands of people from speaking. But they cannot forbid citizens to think or to make a decision when the moment comes,” Grbin added.
Answering questions after the Constitutional Court session, Separovic said Milanovic could be a mandate for the post of Prime Minister after the elections, if he behaves in accordance with the constitution until then.
Milanovic announced that he would take part in the elections in order to oust the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, from power.
Prime Minister and HDZ president Andrej Plenkovic are running for a third term in April. Milanovic and Plenkovic have been in conflict for years.
Milanovic made a statement to N1 television on Monday evening calling the court “gangsters” and “a group of thugs”.
“I suggest to the people who gave me support to be cunning … to be careful what they are doing because that gang of gangsters took them hostage. In typical gangster fashion, a group of thugs led by Separovic, the former head of HIS [Hrvatska izvještajna služba, the former intelligence agency] from the time when Croatian journalists were followed and harassed in the last years of the HDZ’s rule, became president of the Constitutional Court,“ said Milanovic.
“This team from the Constitutional Court is pushing the country into crisis. My candidacy is a routine matter on which people have yet to decide. The threat is irrelevant to me, they are barn flies for me. … I call on citizens to unite against the HDZ,” Milanovic said in an emotional speech.
