According to a first calculation, the social democrat Zoran Milanovic emerged as the winner of the presidential election in Croatia. The challenger of the conservative incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic therefore came to 53.2 percent of the vote in the runoff election on Sunday, as reported by the Croatian media.
Milanovic had already won the first round of the presidential election. He had almost 30 percent of the vote on December 22. In doing so, he relegated Grabar-Kitarovic to second place: the conservative president won just under 27 percent of the vote at the time.
The head of state in Croatia has ceremonial powers above all because the government is run by the Prime Minister. The election is also an indicator of the strength of the right and left camps before the parliamentary elections next year. The youngest EU member country will also take over the presidency of the European Union in the first half of 2020. Croatia has been in the EU since 2013 and in July this year set an important course on the way to future euro membership.
Issues such as inefficient governance and massive emigration played a major role in the election campaign. Grabar-Kitarovic had started with the incumbent president's bonus. However, their demeanor, which critics found pandering, and their sometimes vague promises cost them sympathy. Pressed by populist Miroslav Skoro, she also began to take on increasingly nationalistic tones.
The social democrat Milanovic, in turn, promised "normalcy" in view of the "sham debates" led by the political right about national history. Croatia must finally leave the war against Serbia, which brought death and devastation, but also independence, to the country from 1991 to 1995.