Zoran Milanovic remains president of Croatia after runoff election

President Zoran Milanovic secured a second term in office with a clear lead in a runoff election in the EU and NATO country Croatia. After counting almost all polling stations, he received 75 percent of the votes, as the electoral commission in Zagreb announced. His challenger in the runoff, Dragan Primorac, was only able to get 25 percent of the vote. The conservative ruling party HDZ supported him.

Milanovic had already dominated the first round of the presidential election on December 29th last year. He won this with 49 percent of the votes. If he had gotten over 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 a rather embarrassing result.

Milanovic comes from the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and was Prime Minister of the country from 2011 to 2016, which joined the EU in 2013. As president, he adopted a populist rhetoric and a shirt-sleeved style during his five years in office. In doing so, he not only appealed to his core left-wing voters, but also right-wing and ultra-right voters.

By criticizing Croatia’s military aid to Ukraine, which was attacked by Russia, he also struck a populist tone in foreign policy. His relationship with Plenkovic, who represents 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. “As commander-in-chief, I am the first in matters of security and defense policy,” he said. “That’s what the constitution says.”