This Sunday, Croatians will go to the polls to elect the country's president. This is another vote that attracts a lot of interest due to the environment in which it takes place and the figure of the favorite. Zoran Milanović, who is running for re-election, is not a supporter of helping Ukraine, which he opposes to the government. And representatives of the ruling coalition have often directly expressed concerns that Russia was also involved in these elections.
In one respect, the presidential elections in Croatia are very similar to other elections in Europe this year. The axis of the dispute is again the war in Ukraine and whether to continue helping the victim in the fight against the Russian aggressor.
The “Croatian Trump” is against this – this is how the current president Zoran Milanović is called by the press. In his fight for re-election, he began to use pro-Kremlin and anti-Ukrainian slogans.
– I am for helping, I am for solidarity, but I am also for a cool assessment of what is in the Croatian national interest, what Croatia can do and what it should stay away from. The bloody war that is taking place in Ukraine is not a Croatian issue and will not be a Croatian issue, says Zoran Milanović, the president of Croatia who is running for re-election.
For years, Zoran Milanović was considered a moderate politician. When Croatia joined the European Union in 2013, he was the head of government. But just before Russia attacked Ukraine, he called the protests on the Maidan in Kiev a “coup d'état.”
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What do the polls say?
Today, Croatia belongs not only to the EU, but also to the euro zone. It has been a member of NATO for 15 years. What is even more shocking is that the president's anti-Western and pro-Russian slogans fall on fertile ground. Zoran Milanović is leading in the polls, but the winner will probably be chosen only in the second round of the elections
– The most likely candidates in the second round are the current president Milanović and the HDZ party candidate Dragan Primorac. The remaining candidates are significantly behind them, says Prof. Rivan Rimac from the University of Zagreb.
Primorac is an independent candidate, running with the support of the ruling Croatian Democratic Community. He is a supporter of strengthening Croatia's role within the European Union and NATO.
– We have a president for whom nothing is sacred. Homeland or work are not sacred to him. He gets up at 11:30, does not respect Croatian holidays, is quarrelsome. He does not know that there are people with pure souls and clean hands who truly love their homeland. He doesn't have it and that's why he has to leave, says Dragan Primorac, candidate for president of Croatia.
– It's time for serious people to come to power in Croatia, ready to fight hard for this country and work with quality and commitment. It's time for freshness in the Croatian political space, says Marija Selak Raspudic, an independent candidate for the president of Croatia.
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A “super election” year for Croatians
The president has limited powers in Croatia, although formally he is the head of state and commander of the armed forces. The government headed by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković has real power.
The president and the prime minister, to put it mildly, do not like each other. How difficult cohabitation is in Croatia is demonstrated by the insults that both politicians regularly throw at each other. The mildest term is “bastard”.
– The fight will be fierce and dirty. On the other hand, there will be slander. Over the years, we have seen it all in Croatian political discourse. Standards are falling more and more, says Zoran Milanović.
2024 in Croatia will go down in history as a super election year. Croats first elected MPs, then MEPs, and now the president. A second round of the presidential elections, if needed, is scheduled for January 12.
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