Croatian Milanovic faces his rival in the run-off election next month Election news

The incumbent president narrowly missed an outright victory, receiving 49.1% of the vote, while his rival Primorac received 19.35%.

Croatian President Zoran Milanovic is set to face conservative challenger Dragan Primorac in a run-off election in two weeks.

Official results show that the incumbent president narrowly failed to achieve an outright victory in Sunday’s elections.

The results came Exit poll It was published just after polls closed, suggesting that Milanovic, with the support of the opposition left-wing Social Democratic Party, received more than 50 percent of the vote in the first round, potentially avoiding a runoff on January 12.

Milanovic received 49.1 percent of the votes in the first round. Primorac, supported by the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union party, received 19.35 percent, according to results published by the state electoral commission in almost all polling stations.

On Sunday evening, Milanovic pledged to his supporters who gathered in Zagreb to “fight for Croatia With a clear position that takes care of his interests.”

Such a strong lead for Milanovic, who opinion polls described as the most likely candidate before the vote, raises serious concerns for the Croatian Democratic Union Party, led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

“Although Milanovic declares himself a leftist and comes from the Social Democratic Party, he has been a fierce critic of the Plenković government and Plenković himself, criticizing him for corruption, and also criticizing the Croatian government for being too obedient to Brussels and the Croatian government.” “European Union demands,” Al Jazeera’s Tanja Novak said in a report from Zagreb.

She added: “This position has also made him a supporter of voters on the right spectrum, and as tonight’s votes showed, he has managed to bring many of them to his side.”

Late on Sunday, Primorac described the huge gap between him and Milanovic as a “challenge”.

“In the first round there were… a lot of candidates, and it was not easy to present the entire program. “It’s a great opportunity now for Milanović and I to be face to face… to see who represents what,” Primorac told his supporters in Zagreb.

The elections came at a time when the European Union and NATO member state, with a population of 3.8 million, suffers from severe inflation, rampant corruption and labor shortages.

Among the eight contenders, center-right MP Marija Selak Rasbudić and green-left MP Ivana Kikin came after the main contenders, the poll showed. Both women received about 9 percent of the votes.

“Croatian Trump”

The president cannot veto laws, but he has a say in matters of foreign policy, defense, and security.

Despite his populist rhetoric, Milanović is seen by many as the sole counterweight to the HDZ-dominated government, 30 of whose ministers have had to leave in recent years due to… Corruption allegations.

Prime Minister Plenkovic sought to portray the vote as being about Croatia’s future in the European Union and NATO. Milanovic has been described as “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing.

Milanovic is an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. He is often compared to Donald Trump for his combative style of communicating with political opponents.

Milanovic, Croatia’s most popular politician, 58, served as prime minister. A populist in style, he has been a staunch critic of Plenkovic, and the constant debate between the two has characterized the Croatian political scene recently.

Milanovic regularly criticizes Plenkovic and his Croatian Democratic Union party for systemic corruption, and describes the prime minister as a “dangerous threat to Croatian democracy.”

For many, the election is a continuation of a long-running feud between two powerful politicians.

Primorac, a 59-year-old doctor and scientist who returned to politics after 15 years, campaigned as a “unifier” to promote family and patriotic values.