The political party We Can!, the LGBT association Rainbow Families and film director and former presidential candidate Dario Jurican on Tuesday warned about cases of disregard for final court decisions, referring to a decision by the Zagreb Social Welfare Centre to reject an application by a same-sex couple to be given the right to provide foster care.
“Some of the bodies of public authority disregard final court decisions increasingly frequently. This news conference was prompted by a decision by the head of the Zagreb Social Welfare Centre to refuse to comply with a final decision of the Administrative Court giving a same-sex couple the right to apply to provide foster care,” Sandra Bencic of the We Can! party said.
“When bodies of public authority refuse to implement court decisions, that is the first sign of an authoritarian regime. That regime lives in the government offices and is headed by the HDZ and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, as well as all those who back him, primarily the HNS and Milan Bandic,” said Bencic, adding that the case was not only unlawful but also unconstitutional as it violated the separation of powers.
“Citizens are forced to relaunch proceedings and the authorities hope that they will eventually end up financially exhausted or simply give up,” she said.
Criminal report against Zagreb Social Welfare Centre head
Bencic added that last week she filed a criminal complaint over the failure to comply with the court decision, noting that it was evident from the decision of the Zagreb Social Welfare Centre’s head that she understood the court decision but had nonetheless rejected the application.
Bencic believes that possible fines should be paid by “those bureaucrats themselves” and not from the state budget.
“When we win a lawsuit, the fine is paid from the state budget, that is, we all pay it. It’s been enough of that, those people have to take responsibility for their actions,” she added.
Film director and former presidential candidate Dario Jurican spoke about his decision to change his name to Milan Bandic.
“Of course the city appealed, and I challenged them as long as I could and the case ended up before the Administrative Court. When its decision (to Jurican’s favour) was forwarded to the Public Administration Ministry, the ministry entirely ignored it,” he said.
Activist: Foster parents should be checked, but not for their sexual orientation
Danijel Martinovic, a coordinator of Rainbow Families, said that it was unbelievable that the life partners Ivo Segota and Mladen Kozic had been turned down twice as possible foster carers, noting that the competent authorities should primarily check if foster carers are good foster carers and not what their sexual orientation is.
“The centre’s head, Tatjana Brozic Peric, refused to assess if the gay couple meet the conditions to provide for a child only because they are two men who married publicly,” he said, adding that the centre’s decision did not cite the reason why the couple had been rejected.
“They were told unofficially that it would be better if they divorced so they could become foster parents, which is a kind of behind-the-scenes conduct on the part of the executive authorities,” said Martinovic.
