PoliticsAfter run-off election: Milanovic remains president in Croatia
SDA
12.1.2025 - 21:42
The incumbent President Zoran Milanovic with his wife Sanja Music Milanovic greets his supporters. The sign reads "Thank you". Photo: Darko Bandic/AP/dpa
Keystone
President Zoran Milanovic has secured a second term in office by a clear margin in a run-off election in the EU and NATO member state Croatia. After almost all polling stations had been counted, he received 75 percent of the vote, according to the electoral commission in Zagreb. His challenger in the run-off, Dragan Primorac, was only able to garner 25 percent of the vote. He was supported by the conservative ruling party HDZ.
Keystone-SDA
12.01.2025, 21:42
SDA
Milanovic had already dominated the first round of the presidential election on December 29 last year. He won this with 49 percent of the vote. Had he received more than 50 percent, he would have won the race back then. Primorac only received 19 percent of the vote. For Prime Minister Andrej Plankovic's ruling HDZ, this was already a rather embarrassing result.
Milanovic comes from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and was Prime Minister of the country, which joined the EU in 2013, from 2011 to 2016. As president, he used populist rhetoric and a shirt-sleeved style during his five years in office. This appealed not only to his core left-wing voters, but also to right-wing and ultra-right-wing voters.
By criticizing Croatia's military aid for Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia, he also struck a populist tone in foreign policy. His relationship with Plenkovic, who stands for Croatia's pro-European and pro-Western course, is extremely tense. As the formal commander-in-chief of the Croatian armed forces, Milanovic has so far prevented the Plenkovic government from sending Croatian officers to the new Nato-Ukraine command NSATU (Nato Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine) based in Wiesbaden.
In his speech at his supporters' election party, Milanovic insisted on his constitutional powers. "In matters of security and defense policy, I am the commander-in-chief," he said. "That's what the constitution says."