Milanovic remains Croatia’s most popular politician, and his history of pro-Moscow and anti-Western statements stands in contrast to his then-prime minister, who oversaw the country’s accession to the European Union in 2013. . He was previously elected president in 2020 with the support of Croatia’s main opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
“This is the beginning of the end for (Prime Minister) Andrej Plenković,” SDP leader Sinisa Hajdaš Dončić said at Milanović’s campaign headquarters on Sunday night.
Plenković’s centre-right HDZ party was weakened by a corruption scandal in November involving former health minister Vili Beros. The dispute put Plenković’s government at odds with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which accused Zagreb of obstructing investigations into systemic wrongdoing in the country.
“Primolac was a bad candidate,” Dragan Bagic, a professor of sociology at the University of Zagreb, told Croatian daily Vecerni List. “This is a defeat of the conventional wisdom that HDZ has a very large and loyal base.”
Croatia, ruled by Plenković’s HDZ since 1991, had the eurozone’s third-highest inflation rate in November and is battling severe labor shortages.
