Croatian Supreme Court President finally appointed

Radovan Dobronić, appointed Supreme Court president, was sworn in at the presence of parliament Speaker Gordan Jandroković on Monday (18 October).

The two first attempts to elect the Supreme Court president failed because of disagreement between Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and President Zoran Milanović, who has the role of confirming the election.

“I will do all I can to conduct this duty as best as I can, professionally, objectively and impartially,” Dobronić said.

“Two things are essential, one is to strengthen the formal order, and the other is to strengthen trust in the judiciary,” he added.

Dobronić said that he would work on standardising court practice and looking into more complex public interest cases to see any systematic errors. This will include the recent case which found the governing party HDZ (EPP) guilty of corruption.

“Dobronić has a demanding task,“ Jandroković told Croatian Radio, underscoring that after the challenging procedure to appoint him, the message to citizens is that institutions are functioning.

Jandroković disagrees with claims from the opposition that Dobronić’s appointment is a victory for President Zoran Milanović.

Croatia faces a growing lack of public trust in the judiciary and ranked bottom on the last two European Commission reviews of the rule of law in member states.

(Željko Trkanjec | EURACTIV.hr)