Exhausting the public by the constitutional changes

The fourth draft of constitutional amendments on the judiciary was criticized in a joint statement by professional associations of judges and prosecutors,  and the associations dealing with the protection of human rights. Their conclusion is that the changes do not eliminate the political influence on the judiciary.

"The proposed version of the amendment, like the previous one, reduces the number of judges and prosecutors in the judicial councils in relation to the existing constitutional solution, and increases the number of members of these councils elected from political majority," - said in the statement, among other things - and added that " the fourth version of the draft of constitutional amendments is another step in the process of exhausting the domestic public by constitutional changes."

They have also pointed out that "support for the drafting of amendments by professional and professional organizations made during the constitutional changes can not change the fact that the draft does not comply with the opinion of the Venice Commission and other relevant bodies of the Council of Europe and is a step backwards in relation to the achieved level of depolitization judiciary ".

Transparency Serbia has already reacted to the fourth draft, with similar arguments.

We pointed out that it is not only that constitutional solutions are problematic from the point of view of achieving the stated goal, but that it is not explained why the proposer considers that the judiciary will be free from political influence if the contribution of judges and prosecutors selected on the proposal of their colleagues in the future judicial councils is smaller than it is today.

The absence of such an explanation makes it impossible to conduct an argumentative discussion with the proposer about whether the constitutional amendments achieve the goal. That's why it's right to talk about the public's exhaustion by the constitutional changes.

Since the amendments to the Constitution are being implemented and the judiciary is being relieved of the political influence because of the citizens, which will be voted on by them on the referendum, citizens must receive an answer to the key questions in order for such a decision to make sense. Otherwise, their decision will depend on how much supporters or opponents of the proposed solutions have the opportunity to present their views in the most popular media, or from other irrelevant circumstances, such as general support or opposition to the proposals of the current government.