Zoran Milanovic, the contender in the forthcoming presidential race who is supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and a few more Opposition parties, said on Wednesday that the president of the republic should not at all participate in the selection and appointment of Constitutional Court judges.

Milanovic said that this would be a “gross conflict of interest.”

Earlier in the day, the current president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said that she believed that the topic of enabling the head of state to have some role in the appointment of Constitutional Court judges should be discussed in a bid to make the appointment fairer.

“The president has nothing to do with that (Constitutional Court judges’ appointment). It is a gross conflict of interest. The president (Grabar-Kitarovic) has heard from someone else (about that) and she has probably found it opportune to repeat now that idea,” Milanovic told reporters while he was on a walkabout in the Dalmatian town of Trogir.

He said that he was absolutely against any expanding the presidential powers.

Milanovic believes that those who need more powers ask for that only to compensate “deficiency in the character or lack of knowledge”.

“Expanded powers means greater influence and more money. This is what the government has, and this should be so just as in all European democracies,” said the SDP presidential candidate.