On Monday, the Constitutional Court concluded that the President of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, may not participate in the political activities of any political party while performing his duties, the President of the Constitutional Court, Miroslav Šeparović, announced on Monday.
This excludes any possibility that the President of the Republic of Croatia, in the context of the parliamentary elections announced, will be a candidate on the list for the election of representatives or nominated as a candidate for the position of Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia and participate in the political election campaign in that capacity, the Constitutional Court concluded.
They add that Milanović’s candidacy while holding the office of president, on the list of any political party or independent list for the election of representatives to the Croatian Parliament, and highlighting him as a candidate for prime minister or some other position, is incompatible with his constitutional position and powers and the principle of separation of powers.
If, based on his statements, the President of the Republic of Croatia, while holding that office, runs for election to the Croatian Parliament, or appears in public as a future candidate for Prime Minister, he must immediately submit his resignation to the President of the Constitutional Court, in which case the duty of the interim President of the Republic The President of the Croatian Parliament takes over the power of the Constitution, the Constitutional Court concluded.
Zoran Milanović repeated on Sunday in Lipovljani that he will not resign from the position of president of the Republic of Croatia and that he will be the prime ministerial candidate of SDP in the elections, and while waiting for the decision of the Constitutional Court regarding the candidacy, he referred to ‘a few sentences in the Constitution’, and he it ‘sees completely differently’. Milanović repeated that he will remain a candidate for prime minister regardless of whether he remains on the SDP list.