Croatian President Zoran Milanović has accused Prime Minister and leader of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Andrej Plenković, of attempting to unlawfully seize command of the military through the announced changes to the Defense Law.
In a statement from the president’s press office, it was emphasized that the sole purpose of the proposed amendments to the Defense Law is “to limit and diminish the constitutional powers of the president as the supreme commander of the Armed Forces.”
“Whether Plenković wants to impose his autonomy on the Croatian military by changing the Defense Law or prepare the ground for sending the Croatian military to Ukraine, he must be clear: as long as I am president of the Republic, the supreme commander, Croatian soldiers will not fight other people’s wars,” said Milanović.
“I call on Plenković to respect the Croatian Constitution and the will of the Croatian people who entrusted me with this role precisely because I am protecting the Croatian military from the wars of Plenković and others,” the president added.
In the second round of presidential elections on January 12, Milanović will compete for a second five-year term against HDZ’s candidate Dragan Primorac.
Milanović, who is running as a candidate for the opposition Social Democratic Party, almost secured victory in the first round of elections on December 29, where he won more than 49% of the vote, while Primorac came in second with around 19%.
In today’s statement, Milanović warned Plenković that the highest legal act “clearly and unmistakably emphasizes that the President of the Republic is the supreme commander of the armed forces of the Republic of Croatia.”
“Neither more nor less. The Constitution makes no distinction between the Commander-in-Chief in peacetime and the Commander-in-Chief in wartime,” Milanović emphasized, adding that the Constitution explicitly states that the President is “responsible for protecting the independence and territorial integrity” of the country.
“Neither the Government nor the Prime Minister has that constitutional level of responsibility for protection, and certainly not the Minister of Defense,” he added.
He further warned that any attempt to reinterpret the Constitution, even through the announced changes to the Defense Law, would amount to an attempt to violate the Constitution, an unconstitutional effort to change the Constitution, and an attempt to steal the constitutional powers of the President of the Republic.
