Tomislav Karamarko, president of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), speaks after exit polls in Zagreb, Croatia, November 9, 2015. 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.
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The remaining nine seats would be shared by four minor parties, while eight seats are reserved for minorities.
Milanovic, elected in 2011, campaigned this time with the slogan “Croatia is Growing” after a slight return to economic expansion this year, but he has disappointed voters by failing to reform the public sector and boost the business climate in the country of 4.2 million people.
The Eastern European country saw steady growth for the first few years of the 21st century until a continentwide recession hit in 2008-09, sinking growth and sending unemployment rates skyrocketing.
“Croatia has decided for a change”, Milanovic said.
“If Most sticks to its word, that spells either a minority government or a new election”, Zarko Puhovski, a political science professor at the University of Zagreb, said by phone on Sunday.
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.
Another newcomer to the political scene, Living Wall, a grassroots movement focused on preventing the seizure of indebted citizens’ homes, won one seat. His party has also campaigned on the role it played splitting the Adriatic state from the former Yugoslavia following the fall of communism.
Whatever the make-up of Croatia’s new government, it will have to keep the migrant situation a top priority.
Milanović’s government has won global praise and widespread domestic support for its policy towards refugees and migrants, which has emphasized shunting them on towards Austria and Germany while trying to protect Croatia’s borders. If none manages to form a government, new elections are scheduled.
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Lucija Matkovic, a 23-year-old economist, said she would vote for the HDZ because “the current government did nothing”. “They have a better coalition potential among the smaller parties”.
