Opinion polls predict a tight race between the ruling centre-left alliance, led by Prime Minister Zoran Milanovic’s Social Democrats (SDP), and the rival conservative “Patriotic Coalition”, in Croatia’s first parliamentary election since it joined the European Union in 2013. President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, by constitution, will appoint the party that shows it can command a majority in parliament to form a future government, with the exit poll showing seven parties crossed the threshold to enter parliament in all.
Advertisement
The third-biggest victor and likely kingmaker was Most (“Bridge” in Croatian), a newcomer on the political scene, which was predicted to take 18 seats.
Croatian State Electoral Commission will publish the first preliminary results at 22 hours so stay tuned.
Croatia has become a transit hub for migrants, many from Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq, who want to travel north. Croatian Interior Minister Ranko Ostojic said that the cost of managing the arrivals was close to 284,000 dollars a day.
The coalition gathered around the leftist Socialist Democratic Party is set to win 56 seats in the 151-seat parliament, the exact same number as the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and their allies, an exit poll published on state television showed Sunday.
“It all depends on what the Most party will do”. “We’ll insist on our reforms in all segments of the central and local administrations, and if one of the parties accepts these reforms, we will find the way to best implement them”. It only recently emerged from a six-year recession, the public debt stands at nearly 90 percent of gross domestic product and unemployment is hovering around 16 percent, of which 43 percent is among young people. The victor faces the tough task of reviving a fragile economy and handling the huge numbers of refugees passing through the country each day.
Advertisement
Milanovic’s government has been criticized by the conservatives for allowing the free flow of migrants and have hinted they would build fences and deploy the army to the border to stop the flow.
