MP: Constitutional Judges Chosen Non-Transparently

The court decision on cancelling the choice of Slavica Banic as a constitutional judge is evidence of non-transparency, says Milanovic.

ZAGREB, CROATIA - The president of the SDP (Social Democratic Party) Zoran Milanovic said on Tuesday that the decision by the management court, on cancelling the choice of Slavica Banic to be a judge in the Constitutional Court, showed what his party warned of two years ago – that the choice of constitutional judges is held non-transparently and bypasses democratic standards.

“Nearly two years ago we said that the procedure of choosing judges for the Constitutional Court was not transparent and was too fast, and the obvious interest is to hide some data, and that procedure is not in accordance to democracies that we want to compare ourselves to” said Milanovic at the SDP party headquarters.

He stressed that in all advanced democracies, it is normal that the highest judicial bodies are supervised, and sometimes they are corrected by bodies of executive and lawgiving authority, and in that sense the decision by the management court is not seen as a precedent, but a political issue.

In Croatia everything is done the opposite

However, Milanovic warns that in democratic countries, the procedure for choosing constitutional judges lasts long, and that the public view into their résumés are long and transparent, but that in Croatia everything is done the opposite.

“In Croatia everything is the opposite, and what we warned of occurred, that via secret voting in a parliament procedure, a person was chosen that should not have applied as a candidate, because they do not fulfilled the legally defined conditions. That was roughly violated in the political procedure, even though it was warned about” said Milanovic.

He voiced the hope that the decision of the management court pointed out the oversights that were made when choosing constitutional judges, and that they will not happen in the future, stressing the importance of the Constitutional Court in bringing important decisions for the state and citizens, as well as political and other decisions.

“This is why it is very important to have a thorough discussion on the candidates, and that the candidates are thoroughly studied, so then parliament can bring a decision in accordance to that procedure. It is obvious that the decision is political, because it must be, but it must be in accordance to regulations” said Milanovic.