Incumbent President Zoran Milanović, a critic of NATO and the European Union whose populism has been compared to that of Donald Trump, is on track to be elected for a second term as head of state in Croatia. The independent politician, once leader of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia, won the first round of yesterday’s presidential ballot (Sunday 29 December) with 49.1% of the vote. On January 12th he will go to the run-off with Dragan Primorac, the candidate supported by the conservative government and his main opponent, who received a disappointing 19.41% of the votes.
Popularity
Milanović secured this large advantage, more than ten percent more than what the polls predicted, attracting votes from voters of the left and center oppositions thanks to his constant and ferocious criticism of the conservative government, often even with verbal abuse launched against Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and his ministers, especially due to the many scandals of corruption and political clientelism. He probably also obtained many votes from right-wing voters who look favorably on his sovereignist positions.
In politics for almost thirty years, the outgoing president has increasingly assumed a position as de facto leader of the opposition, and as an energetic defense of democracy against the “pharaonic” power, as he defined it, of Plenković who would, according to Milanović, in nine years in power “imprisoned all national institutions”. “As long as I am president, no Croatian soldier will go to war for the interests of others”, he stated a few days ago, recalling that he had condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine from day one, but that he had also criticized the line of military support for Ukraine by NATO, without a concrete prospect of negotiations.
The challenger
Primorac, doctor and scientist, who will challenge Milanović in the run-off in two weeks, presents himself as the candidate in line with the government and a foreign policy in full harmony with the main European chancelleries. But also as a politician who promises to moderate the rhetorical tones, often violent and picturesque assumed by Milanović, which accentuate the social and political divisions in the country, and to put an end to the difficult coexistence between the president and the prime minister which has complicated in recent times the regular institutional functioning of the country.
The President of the Republic in Croatia has very limited powers, with interference shared with the government in foreign policy, defense and security, but enjoys significant weight and influence as the only national office elected directly by the people.
