Croatia’s opposition-backed president, a critic of the European Union and NATO, has overwhelmingly gained one other five-year time period on Sunday, defeating a candidate from the ruling conservative HDZ celebration in a runoff vote, near-complete official outcomes confirmed.
Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran MIlanović, a critic of the European Union and NATO, has overwhelmingly gained one other five-year time period on Sunday, defeating a candidate from the ruling conservative HDZ celebration in a runoff vote, near-complete official outcomes confirmed.
Milanović gained 74.6% of the vote whereas his challenger Dragan Primorac gained round 25.3%, in response to the outcomes launched by Croatia’s state election authorities after greater than 99% of the ballots had been counted.
Milanović, 58, is an outspoken critic of Western navy help for Ukraine. He’s the most well-liked politician in Croatia, and is typically in comparison with US President-elect Donald Trump for his combative fashion of communication with political opponents.
On Sunday, he once more criticised Brussels as “in some ways non-democratic” and run by unelected officers. The EU’s place that “should you don’t suppose the identical as I do, then you definately’re the enemy” quantities to “psychological violence,” Milanović mentioned.
“That’s not the trendy Europe I need to reside and work in,” he mentioned. “I’ll work on altering it, as a lot as I can because the president of a small nation.”
His triumph additionally units the stage for a continued confrontation with Croatia’s highly effective Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Sparring between the 2 throughout Milanović’s first time period in workplace has marked Croatia’s politics.
Milanović grew to become the third Croatian president in historical past to win re-election; earlier than him, solely HDZ’s Franjo Tuđman and SDP’s Stjepan Mesić did so.
In Croatia, the presidency is basically ceremonial, however an elected president holds political authority and is the supreme navy commander.
Nonetheless, the Croatian president doesn’t characterize the Adriatic nation in Brussels; the prime minister holds the seat on the Council.
