ZAGREB: Croatia’s nationalist President Zoran Milanovic was re-elected in a flood, defeating his liberal rival in Sunday’s run-off, established results showed.
Milanovic took more than 74 per cent of the voting and Dragan Primorac, backed by the centre-right HDZ group that controls Croatia, about 26 per cent, with almost all the vote counted.
It was the highest rating a presidential candidate has received since the former Yugoslav nation’s declaration of independence in 1991.
While the role of the president is largely symbolic in Croatia, Milanovic’s large success is the latest loss for the HDZ and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Milanovic’s social arch-rival, after a high-profile problem event in November.
” Croatia, congratulate you”!, Milanovic told his followers who gathered at a Zagreb art and music membership to enjoy his success.
In a remark about the HDZ-led state, he said,” I see this success as a recognition of my work over the past five years and as a majority message from Serbian people to those who may hear it.”
The vocal Milanovic, backed by the left-wing criticism, won more than 49 per cent of the voting in the competition’s first round two weeks ago, just missing an illegal success.
The electoral commission reported that turnout on Sunday was nearly 44 %, which is a slight decrease from the first round.
The vote was held as the 3.8 million-strong European Union member nation battled the eurozone’s highest inflation level, widespread fraud, and labor shortage.
‘Counterbalance’
Some Croatians believe that the president is essential to maintaining a democratic stability by preventing one party from using all the power levers, despite its limited roles.
Croatia has been primarily governed by the HDZ since freedom.
Mia, a 35-year-old executive from Zagreb who declined to provide her last name, told AFP, explaining her assistance for the former,” the group has too much power and Plenkovic is turning into an autocrat.”
Milanovic, a former left-wing prime minister, won the presidency in 2020 with the backing of the main opposition Social Democrats ( SDP ) party.
A key figure in the region’s political landscape for nearly two decades, he has extremely employed offensive, populist language during repeated attacks aimed at EU and local authorities.
” Milanovic is a sort of a political omnivore”, political analyst Zarko Puhovski told AFP, saying the president was largely seen as the “only, at least symbolic, counterbalance to the government and Plenkovic’s power”.
His no-holds-barred speaking style has sent Milanovic’s popularity soaring and helped attract the backing of right-wing supporters.
Earlier Sunday, after voting in Zagreb, Milanovic criticised Brussels as “in many ways autocratic and non-representative”, run by officials who are not elected.
The 58-year-old also regularly pans the HDZ over the party’s perennial problems with corruption, while also referring to Plenkovic as” Brussels ‘ clerk”.
‘ Russian player ‘
Primorac, a former education and science minister returning to politics after a 15-year absence, has campaigned as a unifier for Croatia. The 59-year-old also insisted on patriotism and family values.
As the official results confirmed his crushing defeat, he told supporters on Sunday evening,” I wanted to send a clear message that Croatia can and deserves better”.
However, some were claiming that Primorac lacked political charisma and failed to convince the HDZ base to back him.
He accused Milanovic of being a “pro-Russian puppet” who has undermined Croatia’s credibility in NATO and the European Union.
Milanovic has criticized the West’s military support for Kyiv, but he also condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
He is also a staunch opponent of a program that would have involved helping train Ukrainian soldiers in Germany.
“The defence of democracy is not to tell everyone who doesn’t think like you that he’s a ‘ Russian player ‘,” Milanovic told reporters on Sunday.
Such a communication style is “in fact totalitarian”, he added.
Young Croatians expressed frustration over the lack of discussion among political leaders about issues like housing or student living standards, among others.
” We hear them ( politicians ) talking mostly about old, recycled issues. What’s important to young people doesn’t even cross their minds”, student Ivana Vuckovic, 20, told AFP.
