After posting a photo on Facebook showing the President of the Constitutional Court, Miroslav Separovic, drinking coffee with the leading members of the HDZ party, the President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, said at a press conference that the Constitutional Court's warning that he should not become Prime Minister-designate or Prime Minister was a preparation for a coup d'état.

“I want to reassure the citizens who are angry and tell them that what they have heard, that the Constitutional Court can say that, but it can do nothing, the elections are over,” Milanovic said, while at the same time behind him in the hall of Pantovcak the screen showed the same photo of Separovic and HDZ members Branko Bacic, Oleg Butkovic and former mayor of Korcula Andrija Fabris.

A month ago they could and did threaten, he added, but not anymore.

“This will not go through. The Croatian parliament can appoint anyone as prime minister-designate who has the majority of all MPs. There is no legal recourse against this. It is over. I do not have to be the prime minister-designate, it’s not about me, but it will not go through for them,” Milanovic said.

He does not agree with those who say that this warning is a coup, but considers it a “preparation for a coup”.

“This is a prelude, for example, to the situation in which Plenkovic, the godfather of corruption in Croatia, says tomorrow, when he has to leave the government building, that he has a decision from the Constitutional Court and that he does not want to do that. In this respect, parliament is above everything. This story that the Constitution is above the Croatian people can only have been invented by a strange mind,” Milanovic said.

He called on all those in the opposition who promised to fight corruption before the election to show this consistency now.

“This is the result of Plenkovic’s panicked fear and hence this reaction. We will prevent the attempts to break the will of the voters,” he added, asking what comes next. “Will they take away my citizenship? It can not go on like this,” he emphasised.

He also commented on the photo he had posted.

“This is how decisions are made, this is a networked team, this is the Croatian reality. If only they were the most educated people among us, but hey,” Milanovic said.

Three constitutional judges, Milanovic said, have written a dissenting opinion stating that this warning is a gross violation of the constitution.