The voting on the appointment of the Croatian public broadcaster's (HRT) director will be on the parliamentary agenda on Wednesday, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic said on Friday.

The parliament’s Media Committee will meet again on Monday, in line with a decision by the Committee on the Constitution, Jandrokovic said, adding that the appointment of the HRT director would be discussed on Tuesday, when the parliament continues its plenary session.

The vote will take place on Wednesday morning, and after that, a debate will be held on amendments to the Reconstruction Act, Jandrokovic told MPs.

MP Marija Selak-Raspudic of the opposition conservative Most party said such an agenda was meant to belittle MPs, “with the parliamentary majority continuing to insist on imposing a new head of the HRT who is in an evident conflict of interest.”

“The opposition has won a major victory today, our fight against your insistence on imposing the HRT director will continue and we will not allow you to violate the public service,” Selak-Raspudic said.

The Committee on the Constitution, Standing Orders and Political System on Friday decided that the sessions of the Media Committee at which it was discussed if Robert Sveb would be nominated as a candidate for the HRT director, were not regular and that a new session had to be convened.

If the parliament does not appoint Sveb by 21 October, the public call for applications for the post, announced in late July, will be annulled.

President: HRT should not concern itself with daily politics

In a comment on the situation in the parliament regarding the appointment of the HRT director, President Zoran Milanovic said on Friday that the influence and role of the HRT in creating public opinion on daily political matters was wrong, dangerous, obsolete, and unacceptable.

The HRT should not concern itself with that, it should cover what other televisions do not, for example culture and history, he said.

“Nobody fights for public supervision of the HRT because of agricultural programmes but because of daily politics. Today, when the HRT is not the only media outlet, everyone is dealing with daily politics, citizens are very well informed and do not need the HRT for that,” said Milanovic.