Croatia celebrate it is domingo the first round of some presidential elections in which the current head of state, the populist Zoran Milanoviccome as favorite under the aura of acting like counterweight to .
Analysts do not expect these elections to bring surprises or important changes to this country of four million inhabitants who since 2009 has been a member of the I’LL TAKE and since 2013 also from the European Union (EU).
The last few years have been marked both by the turn of Milanovic towards increasingly more postures nationalists, eurosceptics and, according to its critics, prorrusasas for his continuous clashes with the Prime Minister’s Executive Andrej Plenkovic.
Progressive measures
Milanovicand 58-year-old jurist and diplomat who between 2011 and 2015 was prime minister, is the joint candidate of the opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) and nine small center-left parties.
When he was at the head of the Government he expanded the gay rightspromoted measures to relieve those in debt in Swiss francs and attempted to expand the Serbian minority rights.
According to one recent surveythe current head of state will win in the first round with 39% of the vote compared to 23% for Plenkovic’s HDZ (Croatian Democratic Union) candidate, the doctor and geneticist researcher Dragan Primorac.
Among the six other candidates The independent conservative Marija Selak Raspudic stands out, who could have up to 10%, and Ivana Kekin, from the center-left Mozemo ( Podemos ), to whom polls give 9% of support. If no one achieves an absolute majority in the first round this Sunday, the two candidates with the most votes will go to a second and final vote two weeks later.
Counterweight to the Government
The charge of president has in Croatia essentially protocol powersbut also great social prestige and some foreign policy powersin addition to being the commander in chief of the Armed Forces.
Milanovic’s main advantage is that many citizens want a counterweight to the HDZwhich He has ruled for 25 of the 33 years of independent Croatiaanalyst Goranko Fizulic explains to EFE. “Now, when all the levers of power are under the control of one party – from the central government to regional and local administrations, and from culture to sports -, Milanovic is seen as the only containment of the omnipotence of the HDZ,” he points out.
Milanovic, for his part, said already at the beginning of the Russian aggression against Ukraine that NATO had provoked Moscow with its supposed “desire to enlarge”, while one of the slogans on which he has most insisted in this campaign has been that “the Croatian soldier will not fight in other people’s wars.
He has also gone so far as to say that the UE is directed by “small-calibre bureaucrats” and has accused Plenkovic of being “subservient” to them.
Economic achievements and corruption
Even though Croatia has achieved under Plenkovic several economic achievementssuch as entering the eurozone and growth of 3.6% in 2024, the country is among the five poorest in the EU. Furthermore, his management has been marred by scandals of corruption.
Last November it was arrested and dismissed the Minister of Health, Vili Berosaccused by the European Prosecutor’s Office of having received bribes from a criminal group in exchange for purchasing overpriced medical devices for public hospitals.
