President Zoran Milanovic said on Friday after the announcement that the vote on the new constitutional judges will take place in Parliament on Saturday that he expects the judges to come to his office immediately afterwards to take the oath and expressed the hope that they "will honour their oath".

“I want this to happen as soon as possible, first thing on Saturday, right after the vote,” Milanovic said in Varazdin about the information his office has received that Parliament will vote on the 10 new constitutional judges on Saturday.

Croatia needs a functioning constitutional court for the presidential election

Milanovic, who was in Varazdin for the Croatian National Day celebrations, also reiterated his views on the Constitutional Court, describing it as poorly structured and with overly broad powers that are politically abused.

He described the Constitutional Court as a “political body”, but expressed the hope that the new composition would “forget what happened before and act in accordance with the constitution by narrowing its powers”.

Croatia needs a functioning Constitutional Court for the presidential election because without it, the presidential election process cannot be fully realised, he said.

“I wish these people all the best, that they are honest, exemplary and upright constitutional judges. What will happen – there are some former politicians, especially from the HDZ party (among the judges) – remains to be seen,” he said.

“It all boils down to the fact that there will be no swap, but a division”

“We know that there is a special room in the HDZ headquarters for the president of the Constitutional Court,” he said, estimating that “it will certainly be (former justice minister) Drazen Bosnjakovic”.

Milanovic further noted that it is in a way sad and definitely bad for the reputation of the Court that “eventually, it all boils down to, not a trade-off, but a division.” “This is a division of territory. It’s not good, but it can not be done any other way,” he added.

The Constitutional Court has 13 judges, and the terms of ten of them expire at midnight. Although the vote on the new judges was originally scheduled for Friday, it did not take place because the SDP party insisted that the vote not take place on the same day as the vote on its motion to remove Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic and the government.

Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic explained that he had not put the vote on the agenda because the whole procedure would have to start all over again if the two-thirds majority of 101 votes was not reached. He considered this risk to be too great, as it could jeopardise the work of the Constitutional Court and raise questions about the legality of the presidential election.