The government on Thursday adopted a proposal to form a commission to choose the candidate for the post of State Attorney-General to be proposed to the parliament, and the commission will comprise Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and seven ministers, who will interview the four applicants.

The interviews with the candidates will be conducted, along with the prime minister, by Deputy Prime Minister Anja Simpraga, Justice and Public Administration Minister Ivan Malenica, Physical Planning, Construction and State Assets Minister Branko Bacic, Minister of the Interior Davor Bozinovic, War Veterans Minister Tomo Medved, Economy and Sustainable Development Minister Damir Habijan, and Finance Minister Marko Primorac.

PM Plenkovic said the government had forwarded the candidacies to the Parliament Speaker, who will forward them to the parliament’s Judiciary Committee, which will discuss the candidacies and adopt a conclusion. The members of the government commission will then interview the candidates and if they are satisfied with and agree on a candidate, they will propose them to the parliament for election.

“Everything is proceeding as envisaged by the law,” Plenkovic said at today’s government session.

The State Attorney’s Council (DOV) said on Tuesday that all the four applications for the post of State Attorney-General submitted were complete and valid and had been forwarded to the government, which on Wednesday published the candidates’ biographies and work programmes.

The applications were sent by Ivan Turudic, a judge of the High Criminal Court, lawyer Mladen Dragicevic, Niksa Wagner who is a deputy county prosecutor from Split, and Emilijo Kalabric, the incumbent deputy state attorney-general.

The application of Judge Ivan Turudic has elicited many negative comments, notably from the Opposition as well as President Zoran Milanovic, who said that the position should be filled by a politically independent and non-partisan person.

The term of the State Attorney-General lasts four years and for a candidate to be elected to the post, they must be supported by an absolute majority, that is, 76 MPs in the 151-seat parliament.

The outgoing State Attorney-General Zlata Hrvoj-Sipek was appointed in May 2020, after her predecessor, Drazen Jelenic, stepped down after it was revealed that he was a member of a Masonic lodge.