“Primorac is boring like a friendly match”

Croatians began voting on Sunday to elect their president for the next five years, a vote which appears to be won by the outgoing head of state, Zoran Milanovic, a fierce critic of the government.

Former Social Democratic Prime Minister (SDP), elected president in 2020, Milanovic is ahead of the seven other candidates in the polls, with 41% of voting intentions in the first round.

So not enough to win on Sunday evening. He should face in the second round, on January 12, Dragan Primorac (23% of voting intentions), supported by the ruling conservatives (HDZ) of Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

Coming among the first voters to a polling station in Zagreb, Mladen, 55, said he did not “really follow the campaign”. “I expect something better,” he told AFP, adding that he had had this hope “for the last thirty years”.

The election is taking place against the backdrop of high inflation, widespread corruption and a labor shortage. Worries that undermine the daily life of Davor Kallay, in his sixties, who says he is unemployed and came to vote even if he does not think that this election will bring changes on the employment front. “But hope is what saves. (I hope) for a reduction in inflation and an increase in wages,” he said.

In Croatia, the president is the head of the armed forces and is the representative on the international scene of this country of 3.8 million inhabitants, member of the European Union (EU) and NATO. Although he has few powers, the president is seen by Croats as guarantor of the balance of powers.

The current president is “the last barrier to prevent all the levers of power from falling into the hands of the HDZ,” said Nenad Horvat, a Zagreb voter interviewed by AFP the day before the vote.

During the campaign, the two main candidates exchanged insults and mockery. For Milanovic, Dragan Primorac, 59, is “fake as a 13-euro note and boring as a friendly match.”

For Primorac, Zoran Milanovic, 58, is “a president for whom nothing is sacred, neither homeland nor work” and who “gets up at 11:30 a.m.”.

Former leader of the SDP – who supported his new candidacy – and Prime Minister from 2001 to 2015, Milanovic is a sharp-spoken politician, one of the most popular in the country. He moved from promising a “progressive, modern and open” Croatia at the start of his current term to populist and often offensive rhetoric.

Zoran Milanovic denounced Russian aggression against Ukraine, while criticizing the military aid provided by the West to kyiv. This policy led to him being described by the Prime Minister as “pro-Russian” who “destroys Croatia’s credibility with NATO and the EU”.

Croatia still provided aid to Ukraine, particularly military aid, amounting to 300 million euros. The president says he wants to prevent Croatia from being “dragged into war” in Ukraine. “As long as I am president, no Croatian soldier will go and fight other people’s wars,” he said.

He accuses Plenkovic and his party of corruption, calling the prime minister a “serious threat to Croatian democracy.” Many see this election as a new round between the outgoing president and the prime minister.

For its part, Primorac campaigns by presenting itself as a “unifier”, evoking family values ​​and patriotism. This election will show “whether Croatia is turning towards the East or the West (…), towards divisions or unity”, he declared.

This doctor, former Minister of Science and Education (2003-2009), accuses Zoran Milanovic of “dishonoring Croatia”.

The exit polls will be published as soon as the polls close at 7:00 p.m. (6:00 p.m. GMT), and the official results in the evening.