Croatia’s conservative opposition bloc took the lead over the ruling center-left alliance in a closely-fought election Sunday, according to preliminary results based on a partial vote count.
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The Croatian Election Commission has announced that a pre-election coalition led by the opposition HDZ party had won 59 seats in the country’s parliament.
With vote counting under way late Sunday, both parties were on course to win 56 seats each in the 151-member parliament, an outcome expected to trigger a fierce scramble for allies from several small parties ahead of the next legislative session.
The Most (Bridge) party was third with 17 seats, giving it a potentially crucial role in any future government coalition talks.
As the results are confirmed, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic will have to hold consultations with the leaders of the biggest coalitions and other parties before offering mandate to form the next government to the one that has the support of the majority of voters.
Mr Milanovic, premier for four years, said the Social Democrats’ campaign had been made harder by Europe’s worst refugee crisis since the second World War, and he criticised the anti-migrant “hate speech and hate mongering” of the HDZ. Two weeks ago Poland’s nationalist Law and Justice Party ousted the liberal, centre-right Civic Platform, a week after the far-right Swiss People’s Party gain the most seats and won a record share of the vote in Switzerland’s election.
The HDZ, which steered Croatia to independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in 1991, has accused the outgoing centre-left government of Mr Milanovic of being soft and ineffectual in handling the migrant issue.
During the campaigns, Karamarko campaigned on patriotism and creating new jobs, while Milanovic promised economic revival and warned against allowing Croatia to return to its conservative past.
Exit polls had predicted an equal vote share for the two main blocs in the race to form a government, which will be under pressure to push through much-needed reforms and oversee the transit of tens of thousands of migrants through the small European Union country.
A few 338,000 migrants have passed through Croatia since mid-September, crossing the border from Serbia at a daily rate of 5,000 or sometimes 10,000. Croatia which joined the European Union in 2013, is one of the bloc’s poorest-performing economies.
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They have hinted they would build fences and deploy the army to the border to stop the flow.
