Incumbent president narrowly missed an outright win, securing 49.1% of the vote, while rival Primorac garnered 19.35%.
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic is set to face-off against his conservative rival, Dragan Primorac, in a run-off election in two weeks.
Official results show that the incumbent narrowly fell short of securing an outright victory in Sunday’s vote.
The results followed an exit poll released immediately after polling stations closed, indicating that Milanovic, supported by the opposition left-wing Social Democrats, had secured more than 50 percent of the first-round vote, potentially avoiding the January 12 run-off.
Milanovic won 49.1 percent of the first-round vote. Primorac, backed by the ruling conservative HDZ party, took 19.35 percent, according to results released by the state electoral commission from nearly all of the polling stations.
On Sunday evening, Milanovic pledged to his supporters who gathered in Zagreb to “fight for Croatia with a clear stance, one that takes care of its interests”.
Such a strong lead for Milanovic, whom surveys labelled a favourite before the vote, raises serious concerns for Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s HDZ.
“Even though Milanovic declares himself a leftist and he’s coming from the Social Democratic party, he was a fierce critic of the Plenkovic government and Plenkovic himself, calling him out for corruption, and also criticising the Croatian government for being too obedient to Brussels and the EU’s demands,” said Al Jazeera’s Tanja Novak, reporting from Zagreb.
“That stance has also made him favourable with the voters on the right spectrum and as tonight’s votes show, he managed to bring a lot of them to his side,” she added.
Late on Sunday, Primorac labelled the big difference between him and Milanovic a “challenge”.
“In the first round there were … a lot of candidates, it was not easy to present the programme fully. Now it’s a great opportunity that Milanovic and I be one-on-one … to see who represents what,” Primorac told his supporters in Zagreb.
The election came as the European Union and NATO member country of 3.8 million people struggles with biting inflation, widespread corruption and a labour shortage.
Among the eight contenders, centre-right MP Marija Selak Raspudic and green-left MP Ivana Kekin followed the two main rivals, the exit poll showed. The two women each won about 9 percent of the vote.
‘Croatia’s Trump’
The president cannot veto laws but has a say in foreign policy, defence and security matters.
Despite his populist rhetoric, Milanovic is seen by many as the only counterbalance to the HDZ-dominated government, 30 of whose ministers have been forced to leave in recent years due to corruption allegations.
Prime Minister Plenkovic has sought to portray the vote as one about Croatia’s future in the EU and NATO. He has labelled Milanovic “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing.
Milanovic is an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. He is often compared to Donald Trump for his combative style of communication with political opponents.
The most popular politician in Croatia, 58-year-old Milanovic has served as prime minister. Populist in style, he has been a fierce critic of Plenkovic, and continuous sparring between the two has lately marked Croatia’s political scene.
Milanovic regularly pans Plenkovic and his HDZ party over systemic corruption, calling the premier a “serious threat to Croatia’s democracy”.
For many, the election is a continuation of the longstanding feud between two powerful politicians.
Primorac, a 59-year-old physician and scientist returning to politics after 15 years, campaigned as a “unifier” promoting family values and patriotism.
Leave a Reply