"The executive authority has succumbed to the pressure, and we could hear messages trying to exert direct influence on the judicial authority," Franak, the Centre for Peace Studies, B.a.b.e. and GONG said in their joint letter, stressing that such behaviour was unacceptable because it posed a threat to the constitutionally guaranteed separation of powers into three branches of government.

The NGOs recalled that shortly after a meeting between the government and the governor of the Croatian National Bank and the board presidents of two of the eight banks that had lost the lawsuit brought by private citizens who were recommended by the banks to take out loans tied to the Swiss franc, Deputy Prime Minister Branko Grcic said, while speculating on the possible implications of the judgment, that the government would not want this court ruling to destabilise the system.

The NGOs said that in that way Grcic openly sided with the banking lobby, but noted that they believed that in the end the government would not allow to be blackmailed by the banks.

"Linking the potential financial and legal insecurity of Croatia to the finality of the court judgment is an obvious attempt by the banking lobby to influence the judicial authority through the executive authority. Openly succumbing to the pressure, in his statement the Deputy Prime Minister is trying to be a mentor to the judicial authority under the guise of caring for the economy and economic welfare of Croatian citizens," the letter said.

Sandra Bencic of the Centre for Peace Studies told a press conference that after the statements from the government the impression was that attempts were being made to create such an atmosphere as would make it hard for the court to uphold the first-instance ruling on appeal. She warned that people who had said before the judgment was delivered that citizens themselves were responsible for taking out such loans were now saying that the banks would not be able to take such a risk because both they and the entire economic system would collapse.

Bencic said that statements such as the one made by Deputy Prime Minister Grcic gave grounds for raising the issue of the right to a fair trial. She said that in her opinion, if dissatisfied with the final judgment, Franak would be able to appeal to the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights for violations of the right to a fair trial.

The NGOs said they were concerned because the government had met with the banks at a sensitive time without at the same time meeting with the other party. They said that the fact that they had learned about their meeting from the media was also a matter for concern.

Petra Rodik of Franak said that the letter would also be sent to the Speaker of Parliament, the Ministry of Justice, the Constitutional Court, the parliamentary Committee on Legislation, the Croatian Association of Judges, the European Commissioner for Consumer Protection and the European Parliament's Committee on Consumer Protection.