Bankers, market middlemen, and commercial court judges. Seemingly an unusual, disconnected society. However, it is not so. In recent weeks, they have something in common. All three groups are facing an unexpectedly prevailing public opinion. And with a painful lesson that it is not good to overdo the maximization of their own interests.
First, the bankers (those who lured more into loans in Swiss francs) received a lesson from the first-instance decision of Judge Radovan Dobronić in favor of the association of savers Franak that they should have prevented the escalation of dissatisfaction among loan users in time. Now it has gone to the other extreme, and there is a threat to the stability of the banking system and the economy as a whole.
Then the middlemen who hold the markets in Zagreb, as well as many others across Croatia, were surprised. They thought the public would stand behind them in their attempt to resist the introduction of fiscal cash registers. It turned out that citizens are fed up with the ‘green mafia’, which has no measure in maximizing the prices of fruits and vegetables at the markets.
No More Untouchables It seems that commercial court judges, as well as all other ‘concessionaires’ in the distribution of justice across Croatia, will be greatly surprised. After Judge Mislav Kolakušić of the Commercial Court in Zagreb halted Dalekovod’s pre-bankruptcy settlement and announced a request for a review of the constitutionality of the Law on Financial Operations and Pre-Bankruptcy Settlements, he is experiencing something similar to what surprised bankers and market resellers.
The least surprising is that Judge Kolakušić’s decision angered Finance Minister Slavko Linić. He and minor oppositions provoke the use of heavy artillery. Let alone touching the main instrument of state policy towards the struggling part of the economy. Judges are surprised, and they should also be concerned that no relevant figure from the public sector has stood by their colleague.
Judges in Croatia (with exceptions) have overdone the maximization of their protected position and the principle of ‘it does not concern us, we are untouchable’.
In these turbulent recessionary times, in which many groups of the population have been severely affected by the decline in standards, no one should count on untouchability. Nor should anyone live under a glass bell.
Of course, questioning the boundaries of judicial independence is a delicate terrain. But this minefield must also be stepped into. Judge Kolakušić has been in the judicial system for years. He has been in commercial adjudication for a few months. His writing of a request for a review of the constitutionality of pre-bankruptcy settlements would have had principled weight if Mr. Judge had previously asked the Constitutional Court to review the bankruptcy legislation that enabled the creation of the so-called bankruptcy mafia. If judges had initiated bankruptcy legislation that was not only tailored for the profit of bankruptcy judges and administrators, Slavko Linić would not have to seek ‘bypasses’ with the Law on Pre-Bankruptcy Settlements. And of course, while probably dangerously dancing on the edge of (un)constitutionality. But the right to work is guaranteed by the Constitution, so the desperate bankruptcy judiciary prevents tens and hundreds of thousands of people from exercising that constitutional right.
It is interesting that affected creditors grumble about the write-off of claims, but they understand the circumstances.
