President Zoran Milanovic said in a Facebook post on Friday that the only purpose of the "new, unconstitutional procedure for the selection of the Supreme Court president" is not transparency but "sabotage of the President of the Republic, as the only constitutional proposer."

Milanovic’s post was prompted by an open letter sent to him by Supreme Court judge Damir Kos, who said that he would not apply to the third public call for the appointment of the Supreme Court president and that with his statements, Milanovic had contaminated the procedure for the selection of the Supreme Court president.

Noting in his reply that most of the public is not familiar and does not understand “how one becomes a judge and stays in that position almost indefinitely”, Milanovic says that the selection procedure for judges is decided by the profession and by politics.

“That important circumstance, which should remind every reasonable member of that class of its delicate and deficient legitimacy to make statements in the political arena, has resulted in some (and I stress, some) judges… developing, with the passage of time and realisation that they are untouchable, due to lack of any real or ethical supervision, a superiority complex,” Milanovic says.

He also commented on Judge Kos’s support for the institute of the public call in the selection of the Supreme Court president.

“(Judge Kos) says that ‘that is the only way for citizens to learn who potential candidates for the post are.’ Does that mean that in the past 20 years the dregs of society, completely unknown to the public, were appointed to that position? (Former Supreme Court presidents) (Ivica) Crnic? (Djuro) Sessa? or Judge (Branko) Hrvatin?…

“Or is actually the ruling party’s legislative sabotage and dismantling of the perfectly clear constitutional provision on the right and obligation of the President of the Republic… to propose a candidate to the parliament, what has contaminated the process?” the president says, noting that “it is exactly because of these reasons that some judges like that perfidious unconstitutionality.”

He goes on to say that he would prefer “a legal solution under which judges would be selected more transparently, for a long yet definite term, instead of de facto for life”, but stresses that “the Constitution says otherwise, and as long as that is so, it is my duty to calmly accept it and act accordingly, even if I don’t like it.”

Concluding his post, Milanovic notes that the selection process for the Supreme Court president has been marked by scheming that has been going on for months.

“The sole purpose of the new, unconstitutional procedure is to sabotage the President of the Republic, as the only constitutional proposer. It is not about transparency. Scheming has been going on for months and that is obvious to everyone,” Milanovic says in the post.