Croatia has a political crisis, not a constitutional one, but also institutions that can solve it, the President of the Constitutional Court Miroslav Separovic said on Monday after the court concluded that President Zoran Milanovic cannot run in the upcoming parliamentary elections.

“The State Electoral Commission is responsible for organising the elections and I hope that it will do its job as it has done so far,” he told the press, refusing to say whether the Constitutional Court “must exercise its constitutional powers.

“There are enough tools for the election campaign and there is no need to resort to unconstitutional means and violate the constitution,” he added.

Milanovic can become Prime Minister-designate after the election if he acts in accordance with the Constitution and the law by then, Separovic said. “I hope and am confident that there will be no other options and that the President and the SDP party will abide by the Constitution and the warning (issued today by the Constitutional Court).”

The President must not do what he has been doing since Friday

Milanovic is not allowed to be active in the Social Democratic Party’s campaign, promote the party, participate in its rallies or give interviews as an election candidate, Separovic said.

When asked whether SDP leader Pedja Grbin could now say that Milanovic was the party’s candidate for prime minister, he said: “I do not think Grbin will say that because it would violate the rule of law.”

Should Milanovic ignore the Constitutional Court’s conclusions from today, the court will exhaust all possibilities at its disposal, including the cancellation of all election activities, Separovic said, but added that he was confident that this would not happen.

“This decision does not prevent the President from continuing to act as the President of the Republic as a person with constitutional powers. But he must not do what he has been doing since Friday,” when Milanovic announced that he would run in the parliamentary elections on 17 April.

“We have not established whether there has been a violation of the Constitution that would lead to the termination of Milanovic’s term of office”

Asked whether Milanovic could be removed from office, Separovic said that the Constitutional Court had not discussed this option. “That is impossible at the moment. We have not established whether there has been a violation of the Constitution that would lead to the termination of his term of office, but we have determined that the president violated the Constitution from Friday to Sunday by participating in the (SDP party’s) statements and saying that he would run for the post of prime minister.”

Separovic would not say whether Milanovic could be declared unfit to serve.

Nine Constitutional Court judges voted in favour of today’s conclusions, two were against and two walked out of the session. Separovic said that the two judges who voted against justified this by saying that it was not fully clarified when the head of state can participate in political processes.