Croatia\u2019s opposition-backed President Zoran Milanovi\u0107, a critic of the European Union and NATO, overwhelmingly won reelection for another five-year term on Sunday, defeating a candidate from the ruling conservative party in a runoff vote, official results showed. <\/p>\n
Milanovi\u0107 won more than 74% of the vote compared to his challenger Dragan Primorac, who received nearly 26%, according to the results released by Croatia\u2019s state election authorities after more than 99% of the ballots were counted. <\/p>\n
The result presents a major boost for Milanovi\u0107, who is a critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. Milanovi\u0107 is also a fierce opponent of Croatia\u2019s conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovi\u0107 and his government. <\/p>\n
In a speech after the results were released, Milanovi\u0107 said his victory was a sign of approval and trust from the voters but also presented a message \u201cabout the state of affairs in the country for those who need to hear it.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cI am asking them (the government) to hear it,\u201d said Milanovic. \u201cThat is what the citizens wanted to say. This is not just support for me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Milanovi\u0107, 58, is the most popular politician in Croatia, and is sometimes compared to US President-elect Donald Trump for his combative style of communication with political opponents. <\/p>\n
His triumph sets the stage for a continued political confrontation with PM Plenkovi\u0107, with whom he sparred during his first term. <\/p>\n
Milanovi\u0107 also won comfortably in the first round of voting on Dec. 29, leaving Primorac, a forensic scientist who had unsuccessfully run for president previously, and six other candidates far behind. <\/p>\n
The runoff between the top two contenders was necessary because Milanovi\u0107 fell short of securing 50% of the vote by just 5,000 votes, while Primorac trailed far behind with 19%. <\/p>\n
The election was held as Croatia, which has a population of 3.8 million, struggles with biting inflation, corruption scandals and a labor shortage. <\/p>\n
Upon voting on Sunday, Milanovi\u0107 again criticized the EU as \u201cin many ways non-democratic\u201d and run by unelected officials. The EU position that \u201cif you don\u2019t think the same as I do, then you\u2019re the enemy\u201d amounts to \u201cmental violence,\u201d Milanovi\u0107 said. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not the modern Europe I want to live and work in,\u201d he said. \u201cI will work on changing it, as much as I can as the president of a small nation.\u201d <\/p>\n
Milanovi\u0107 served as prime minister in the past with a mixed record. <\/p>\n
He regularly accuses Plenkovi\u0107 and his conservative HDZ of systemic corruption, while Plenkovi\u0107 has labeled Milanovi\u0107 \u201cpro-Russian\u201d and a threat to Croatia\u2019s international standing. <\/p>\n
Political analyst Vi\u0161eslav Raos said the increasingly outspoken Milanovi\u0107 has no motive to \u201ctry to please someone or try to control himself.\u201d <\/p>\n
\u201cIf there was no cooperation with the prime minister for the first five years (of his presidency), why would there be now?\u201d he said. <\/p>\n
Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme military commander. <\/p>\n
Milanovi\u0107 denied he is pro-Russian but last year, he blocked the dispatch of five Croatian officers to NATO\u2019s mission in Germany called Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine. He also pledged he would never approve sending Croatian soldiers as part of any NATO mission to Ukraine. Plenkovi\u0107 and his government say there is no such proposal. <\/p>\n
Despite limited powers, many believe the presidential position is key for the political balance of power in a country mainly governed by the Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, since gaining independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. <\/p>\n
Primorac, 59, entered politics in the early 2000s, when he was science and education minister in the HDZ-led government. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2009, and after that mainly focused on his academic career including lecturing at universities in the United States, China and in Croatia. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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Croatia\u2019s opposition-backed President Zoran Milanovi\u0107, a critic of the European Union and NATO, overwhelmingly won reelection for another five-year term on Sunday, defeating a candidate from the ruling conservative party in a runoff vote, official results showed. Milanovi\u0107 won more than 74% of the vote compared to his challenger Dragan Primorac, who received nearly 26%, <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11928,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-11927","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11928"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/digitaltradecenter.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}