The legislative elections this Wednesday in Croatia confirmed what the polls predicted: the victory of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of the current prime minister, the pro-European Andrej Plenković, a 54-year-old career diplomat who has been in power since 2016. The official results, with almost 85% counted, indicate that the HDZ obtains 61 seats, far from the absolute majority (76), which would complicate the reissue of a Plenkovic government.
The accusations of corruption against Plenkovic's party, which led to the resignation of several ministers this term, make the search for partners difficult, but creating an alternative around the Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP), which came second, also It is expected to be complicated.
The SDP and the Ríos de Justicia coalition obtain 42 deputies. The leader of the SDP, the current president of the country, Zoran Milanovic, has been the real protagonist of these elections. A 57-year-old lawyer, populist and eurosceptic, Milanovic announced a month ago his intention to run as a candidate for prime minister, a position he already held between 2011 and 2016.
By not resigning as president to participate in the electoral campaign for his party, as the Constitutional Court demanded, the Croatian president created an unprecedented political situation. The high court warned Milanovic that his position as head of state, to which he agreed by winning the 2020 presidential elections in the second round with 53% of the votes, is incompatible with his participation in an electoral campaign. . In Croatia, the presidency is a formal position that should be exercised in a neutral manner, but Milanovic has been the main critic of the HDZ during the electoral campaign, ignoring the ruling of the Constitutional Court.
Furthermore, the president is the one who has the powers to call elections and Milanovic called yesterday's elections on a working day, instead of a holiday, with the argument that attendance at the polls would be greater, although in the end the day had to be made non-working to facilitate voting.
In third place was the right-wing ultranationalist Patriotic Movement (DP) with 13 seats, whose support could be decisive in forming a government. The fourth group with the most votes is the liberal Most (Puente), with 9 deputies, followed by the center-left and environmentalist formation Mozemo (Vamos), with 8.
Since 2020, the HDZ conservatives have governed in coalition with a liberal formation and the support of minority deputies.
The Croatian Parliament is made up of 151 deputies: 140 correspond to the ten constituencies into which the country is divided; eight are elected by national minorities; and three for Croatians residing abroad.
Croatia has been a member of the EU since 2013 and on January 1, 2023 it joined the euro zone and the Schengen area of European free movement.
