Croatia’s conservative opposition has won the most seats in the country’s parliamentary elections, but not enough to govern on its own.
Advertisement
Croatian Prime Minister and leader of the Social Democratic Party, Zoran Milanovic, casts his ballot during the general elections on November 8, 2015 in Zagreb.
If the exit polls projections will be confirmed by the official results, neither “Croatia Is Growing” nor “Patriotic Coalition” can gain outright majority, so the next government will depend on the small parties in the assembly.
The partial count also showed an unexpected success for new political party Most (meaning “Bridge” in Croatian), on track to win 19 seats and become a crucial force in post-election negotiations.
Analysts say a broad-based coalition would be best placed to tackle the challenges confronting the ex-Yugoslav republic, which include safeguarding a fragile economic recovery after six years of recession and tackling the flow of large numbers of migrants transiting Croatia on their way to western Europe. While Most had earlier rejected the possibility of sharing power in government, its deputy leader Drago Prgomet said the party had changed its stance.
“We have won”, declared Tomislav Karamarko, leader of the opposition conservatives coalition.
Sunday’s vote represented a revival for Karamarko’s conservative Croatian Democratic Union party, which led Croatia during its war for independence from the Serb-led Yugoslavia in the 1990s and then dominated its political scene for years. The victory brought us responsibility to lead our country, which is in a hard situation. With other members of the party ruling out Most participating in a coalition, he added: “I can’t believe that either of the big parties will agree with our reform proposals”, which include cutting the size of a state bureaucracy that includes thousands of local administrations.
Still, public debt will climb to 91.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2016, according to the European Commission.
More than 2,300 candidates on 166 slates – mostly party tickets – stood for election.
Advertisement
The President of the country, which comes from the HDZ ranks, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic has threatened to build border fence along the border with Serbia, similar to Hungarian ones which has constructed fences along the border with Serbia and Croatia to stop the influx of the migrants.
