As Croatian voters prepare to cast votes in early parliamentary elections on Sunday for the second time in ten months, surveys suggest neither the centre-left People’s Coalition nor the centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, will emerge as the clear victor.
Advertisement
The European Union’s newest member state, Croatia, is holding a snap election this weekend that pits the dominant parties on the left and right against each other but is unlikely to produce a clear victor.
HDZ’s former junior government partner – the “Most” party (meaning “Bridge” in Croatian) – is likely to play kingmaker once again.
Parties offer few details on how to deliver promised higher standards of living for Croatia’s 4.3 million people, where unemployment runs at 13 percent. He became the left-leaning party’s leader in 2007 after the death of previous leader Ivica Racan.
The HDZ stood at 62 seats in the 151-member parliament, according to preliminary results after 15 percent of votes had been counted in the second election in less than a year, with their Social Democratic (SDP) rival a full 10 seats behind.
The main parties in Croatia are the left-wing Social Democrats and the right-wing Croatian Democratic Union, commonly known as HDZ.
Of the smaller parties, a regional party, the Istrian Democratic Assembly, IDS, won three seats, while the coalition around the Zagreb Mayor Milan Bandic won two seats.
On the left, Zoran Milanovic is hoping to return to power with a coalition led by his Social Democrats. There were signs of discontent within party ranks with Milanovic’s pre-election tactics.
Over the past months, political life in the country, which emerged from the wreckage of Yugoslavia 25 years ago, has been dominated by populist rhetoric and gestures from all sides that has brought relations with neighboring Serbia to their lowest point since the end of the 1990s Balkan wars.
Milanovic urged the party to hold the internal vote as soon as possible.
Croatia joined the European Union three years ago but is one of the bloc’s worst performing economies and is being called on to carry out tough reforms by Brussels.
Most, which was headed for 12 seats, has said implementing its liberal reforms is its pre-condition for entering a coalition.
“It’s important that Croatia gets a moderate government focused on hard budget constraint, reform of the public administration, and that is prepared to fix the damage done to relations with the region and European Union”, said Davor Gjenero, a Croatian political analyst.
Leaders of the Zivi Zid coalition have announced they would not join the government, regardless of who forms it.
Andrej Plenkovic, a European parliamentarian who has assumed HDZ leadership only months before the vote and shifted it toward the center, said Monday that talks with potential coalition partners will start in the coming days.
Advertisement
“We are happy”, Plenkovic said upon casting his ballot.
