The President publicly announced plans to run for the SDP candidate for prime minister to contest Andrej Plenković’s hold on power. Despite warnings of sanctions from the Constitutional Court, Zoran Milanović presses forward for candidacy, risking political chaos in Croatia.
Croatian President Zoran Milanović made a controversial and unprecedented decision on Sunday by announcing his candidacy for prime minister without resigning from his presidential position, a move deemed unconstitutional by the Constitutional Court.
Additionally, he declared that the election would occur on Wednesday, April 17th, deviating from the standard Sunday procedure. This alteration underscores the irregularities surrounding this election which raises numerous questions.
Milanović, a nationalist populist, has already served in the more powerful position of prime minister from 2011 to 2016. His presidential term is set to end in 2025 and he has reiterated that he will resign only after winning the polls.
The incumbent Prime Minister, Andrej Plenković, who has held power for eight years, endorsed the court’s decision to declare his opponent’s actions unconstitutional, denouncing it as a “mini-coup.” He also described Milanović’s past leadership as the “worst government in the history of Croatia.” Nevertheless, he was not immune to the shock that gripped the nation at Milanović’s decision.
A Constitutional violation?
It is not explicitly forbidden for the president to participate in parliamentary elections, but such actions are implied to breach the Constitution, which mandates that the president’s role remains strictly non-partisan and ceremonial, compared to the prime minister which exerts most of the political power in the country.
Following a two-hour debate on Monday, nine out of eleven judges on the Constitutional Court concluded that Milanović’s involvement in the election, given his inability to affiliate with any political party, would constitute a violation of the Constitution.
Although the Croatian Social Democrats (SDP) respected the decision and are now refraining from endorsing Milanović as the candidate, Milanović personally referred to the court decision as a “Constitutional coup d’état.”
The court ordered that he resign before participating in the election, but Milanović has so far ignored the decision, not wishing to hand over the presidency to the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). In the period between the election and assuming office, the speaker of the Croatian Parliament, Gordan Jandroković, would take his place as president, but Milanović objected: “I don’t think he’s a gangster, but that’s surrendering to the HDZ.”
The court warned that deviating from their decision would lead to sanctions and suggested that the election could be annulled.
A chaotic political climate in Croatia
The SDP is the largest opposition party in Croatia but has recently failed to galvanize supporters and convince voters. The HDZ has been in power continuously since 2014, and its hold on power since the country’s creation in 1991 has only been interrupted twice by the SDP.
Former prime minister Jadranka Kosor of the HDZ underscored the challenge to Plenković’s grip on power, stating, “Plenković knows very well that the only person who could verbally surpass him is Zoran Milanović.”
However, removing himself from the SDP ticket would lead to less publicity on television and little chance of a public debate with Plenković. Mobilizing voters without these traditional forms of campaigning would be significantly more challenging, so Milanović declared his intention to defy the court’s decision and maintain his role as the public face of the SDP party.
Milanović’s strategy has been a “universal shock” according to Kosor. Ignoring the decision of the Constitutional Court risks a chaotic scenario for the election, which may be annulled as a result.
Undemocratic norms under the HDZ
But the party in power is also accused of violating democratic norms. By appointing Turudić as State Prosecutor General, the HDZ ignored his links to people with criminal proceedings for corruption. Stipe Mesiç, the former president of Croatia from 2000 to 2010, referred to the state of the political climate as a “Croatian tragedy” and welcomed Milanović’s disobedience as a heroic act “that puts Croatia back on the democratic path.”
Milanović echoed this view in a public statement, describing Plenković’s administration as the “most corrupt in the history of Croatia,” and alarmingly declaring that the country “is in danger.”
Although the SDP has publicly stated their respect for the decision of the court, refusing to endorse Milanović as their candidate until after the election, Milanović still refuses to give up the presidency.
Kosor stressed the profound implications for Croatian politics, asserting that it “will be talked about for decades as an unprecedented political movement” and that the potential removal of the SDP candidate from the ballot is the worst-case scenario, likely to induce chaos.
What is certain is that the situation will be fiercely contested. Milanović set the tone of a rough campaign as he compared his opponents to “thugs and drunkards” that must be “thrown from power with a broom.”
