Following the Constitutional Court's decision, the leader of the SDP, Pedja Grbin, addressed the public on Monday. He commented on the Constitutional Court's decision that President Zoran Milanović, who announced his candidacy on the SDP list last Friday, cannot run as head of state in the parliamentary elections and cannot be nominated for the office of prime minister.

“We must respect the court’s decision. As of today, I can no longer say that Zoran Milanovic is running, that he will receive a mandate to form a government and that Milanovic will become prime minister. We will announce this after the election. A miserable dictator and his lackeys are standing in our way. They have threatened us today to do what every free person is allowed to do. The people of this country are not sheep, they know what we are fighting against. Against scum and henchmen. We will win and after 17 April Croatia will not be the same, it will be much, much better,” he said.

“Croatia is a country of proud people who will not allow to be stepped on. Today they are being insulted by the miserable dictator Andrej Plenkovic and his lackeys who want to deny them the right to vote. That is why we are here to empower them to make that choice. Justice and truth will prevail and the rivers of that justice will come.”

“The legitimacy of elections stems from the will of the voters. Even if I am not allowed to talk about it, the will of the voters will be clear. They have taken away the right of tens of thousands of people to express themselves. But they cannot forbid citizens to think or vote when the moment comes. It is obvious that in Croatia everything is allowed for some and nothing for others. This is what Andrej Plenkovic means when he says that there are two Croatias. This second Croatia is already rising in Croatian cities on 23 March,“ he added.

He also said that the SDP party itself has asked the Constitutional Court for an opinion. “We ourselves have asked the Constitutional Court for an opinion. Let the members of the ruling HDZ party also turn to the institutions if they have the courage, morality and honesty to do so.”

Milanovic: The Constitutional Court’s decision is a constitutional coup

President Zoran Milanovic said on Monday that the Constitutional Court’s decision not to allow him to run in the upcoming parliamentary elections was a constitutional coup and that he would eventually become prime minister.

“I appeal to my colleagues, friends and to the Croatian people and citizens, because in the end they will decide on this constitutional crisis, which is a constitutional coup… There is no other way to deal with such people. The problem must be solved through elections,” Milanovic told the press in Vela Luka on the island of Korcula.

“They stand in the way of the will of Croatian voters to decide in free elections after seven and a half years of lawlessness and the crimes of the HDZ… to say whether they are in favour or against,” Milanovic said.

In the end, he added, he will become prime minister and prime minister-designate in a legal and decent way, but he would “not tell this gang how.”

He called on citizens to unite in the election against the HDZ and “the Andrej Turudic gang” (a reference to Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and State Attorney-General Ivan Turudic), regardless of whether they vote for the SDP, Mozemo, Domovinski pokret or the MOST party.

“Everything is good. Nothing is bad. These are times when we are fighting for… Life or death,” said Milanovic.