It seems that the far-leftism at the Constitutional Court will not end any time soon – the candidacy for the post of Constitutional Court judge has so far been confirmed by the former President of the Judges’ Association, Vesna Bergant Rakočević, and the head of the specialised and criminal division at the Ljubljana District Court, Ciril Keršmanc, for the newspaper Dnevnik. The position is also said to have been deemed interesting by the President of the Supreme Court, the “gun owner” Miodrag Đorđević, as well as Nina Betetto and Primož Gorkić. So, it’s all “our people.” The New Slovenia (Nova Slovenija – NSi) party member Janez Pogorelec, who has unsuccessfully stood for this post in the past, will not be running this time, while Franci Matoz is not commenting on speculation that he could be one of the candidates.
Monday marked the deadline for candidates to apply for the two vacancies for Constitutional Court judges. The President of the Republic, Nataša Pirc Musar, published a public call for proposals for two vacant positions of Constitutional Court judges at the end of April, and the deadline for applications closed this week. The two new candidates will replace the left-wing activist Špelca Mežnar, and Marko Šorli, who has so far been the voice of reason at the Constitutional Court – one of the three uncontaminated Constitutional Court judges, and not one of the infamous six who have almost always voted to the likings of left-wing politics. Šorli’s and Mežnar’s mandate is due to expire.
In addition to the senior judge, Vesna Bergant Rakočević, who has been nominated for the post of Constitutional Court judge by the Institute of Comparative Law at the Ljubljana Faculty of Law, the head of the criminal and specialised division at the Ljubljana District Court, Ciril Keršmanc, has also confirmed his candidacy.
Vesna Bergant Rakoćević is a proven candidate of the left
It is worth noting that Vesna Bergant Rakoćević, part of the Bergant-Rakoćević clan through her husband Igor E. Bergant, an activist-journalist at the national media outlet, Radio-Television Slovenia (RTVS), is quite infamous already. She became better known to the public when she congratulated the judge who put Janša behind bars for her courage. The note appeared at the end of an article in the magazine “Pravna praksa” (Legal Practice) entitled “Why nobody in Murgle writes judgements for me.”
With these words, Rakočević thanked Judge Barbara Klajnšek, who had sentenced Janša in the Patria case. The enthusiasm of the representatives of the transitional elite in the ranks of the judiciary was so strong that emotions took precedence over the professional attitude expected of judges. Let us recall that this is also a person connected to the controversial retired judge Branko Masleša (just remember how she emotionally defended him in connection with the controversial diploma …).
The Bergant spouses are a symbolic example of the intertwining of the branches of power, which in a healthy democracy should control each other, check each other’s work, and be independent of each other.
Much less well known in the public sphere is her father, Slobodan Rakočević, who was a prominent functionary of the SZDL – the Socialist Union of the Working People of Slovenia during the former regime. He is known to have defended and justified the censorship exercised by the totalitarian regime as late as the end of the 1980s. The Bergant-Rakočević clan has a reputation as an important link between left-wing politics and the Slovenian criminal justice system.
The second candidate serves in a court that flagrantly violates the law and has been accused of bias by prosecutors in the past
The second candidate, Ciril Keršmanc, is the head of the specialised and criminal division of the Ljubljana District Court, where several domestic and international institutions have detected human rights violations in the past.
The European Court of Human Rights’ judgment in the case of children taken away from their parents in December last year revealed a number of violations, including irregularities in the functioning of the President of the District Court, Marjan Pogačnik. He even breached national law in the selection of the judge who presided over the case, as he did not comply with the legal order on the random assignment of cases, and the same is alleged to have happened in another case. The case was also brought to the attention of the Judicial Council, which also found irregularities. Pogačnik is also facing dismissal for this reason.
On the 9th of January 2025, the Judicial Council took note of the judgment of the European Court of Justice and requested clarifications from President Pogačnik. According to Article 64 of the Courts Act, the President of the Court should be removed from office if he violates or allows a violation of the rules on the assignment of cases.
Keršmanc became publicly known when he tried the case of the murder of the well-known actor Gašper Tič, who was murdered by Stefan Cakić. At the time, the prosecutor, Tamara Gregorčič, requested his disqualification because during the process of questioning witnesses, he had clearly taken the position that Tič had sexually abused Cakić and that Cakić had acted in self-defence – even though Cakić had stabbed him 17 times, causing Tič to bleed to death. Recall that a judge, in his professional duty, must not show clear subjective signs of sympathy for one version of events in a trial, but must arrive at the objective truth through the process of evidence.
What is in store for the Constitutional Court?
The current pool of candidates for the post of Constitutional Court judge makes it clear that the political judgments of 6 : 3 will in the future turn into political judgments of 7 : 2, where seven left-wing political activists will decide exactly as the deep state wishes, according to the dictates of left-wing politics.
This will also guarantee that the constitutionality of the (very obviously unconstitutional) Radio-Television Slovenia Act will never really be decided on and that the matter will always remain cemented in the legal grey areas and drawers of the Constitutional Court. Parents who do not educate their children in state institutions will also never be entitled to have the state pay for their children’s public education, even though this is clearly unconstitutional. Every time free economic initiative is under question, against the centrally planned economy and the management of society, the result will be the same: seven to two. Defacto, then, we are becoming a socialist state.
Of course, it will not be difficult for the coalition to vote in a Constitutional Court judge of their liking, since they enjoy a strong (Covid) majority in the National Assembly.
I. K.
