The leaders of the SDP, Most and Mozemo parties expressed the hope on Friday that the new constitutional judges will not be selected using clientelistic methods, especially as the appointment of judges has been delayed by six months.

The leader of the SDP, Pedja Grbin, also warned that the ruling HDZ party could try to close the Constitutional Court, as the selection of new judges has been postponed by almost six months.

On Friday, the term of office of ten of the 13 judges of the Constitutional Court has expired and Grbin stated that it is surreal that the HDZ members do not want to initiate the selection procedure for new judges.

“Postponement by the HDZ is ‘an expression of complete incompetence and irresponsibility'”

The judges whose term of office ended today will remain in office for up to six months, namely until the election of new judges, which is scheduled for 7 December.

Grbin is of the opinion that the postponement by the HDZ is “an expression of complete incompetence and irresponsibility, or a decision to close the Constitutional Court”

He emphasised that he had repeatedly called on Ivan Malenica (HDZ), the chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on the Constitution, to initiate a public tender for constitutional judges.

However, we are in a situation where the term of office of the current judges has expired, and due to the decision of the HDZ, we have not initiated this process, he said. “Now the term of office of constitutional judges will be extended for another six months and we will again find ourselves in a situation where we are selecting constitutional judges at the last minute.”

When asked how realistic the option is that the HDZ could seek to abolish the Constitutional Court in view of the opposition’s criticism that the court is an extension of the HDZ, Grbin said that this behaviour was surprising.

Petrov: Method of selecting constitutional judges not good

The leader of the Most party, Bozo Petrov, hopes that the “quid pro quo” method will not be used again in the selection of constitutional judges.

“It is not good, neither for the state nor for the Constitutional Court, to negotiate in this way,” he said.

The constitution stipulates that a total of 13 constitutional judges are appointed by parliament with a two-thirds majority, i.e. by an agreement between the ruling majority and the opposition in a procedure prescribed by constitutional law.

“The first and most important change is that a constitutional judge can only have one term of office. His first and only term should be eight or nine years, without the possibility of re-election. We have also proposed clear criteria where expertise should prevail. It is highly questionable why some people are constitutional judges today,” he said.

Bencic: retired politician undeservedly on the Constitutional Court

Sandra Bencic, the coordinator of the Mozemo party, is also in favour of a different method of selecting constitutional court judges.

“We will insist that the criteria for the selection of constitutional judges be defined in advance to prevent retired politicians from being undeservedly appointed to the Constitutional Court,” she said.