With over 70 percent
Russia-friendly candidate wins election in Croatia
January 12, 2025 – 8:23 p.mReading time: 1 Min.
Russia-friendly Zoran Milanović has clearly won the runoff election for the presidency in Croatia. According to forecasts, he clearly prevailed against his challenger.
Zoran Milanović won the runoff election for the Croatian presidency with a large majority. According to a post-election survey published by television station HRT, the incumbent received 77.8 percent of the vote. His challenger, former minister Dragan Primorac, got 22.1 percent.
Milanović, supported by the Social Democrats, was head of government from 2011 to 2016 and became president for the first time in 2020. In the first round of voting two weeks ago, he narrowly missed out on an absolute majority of 49.2 percent. Nevertheless, he went into the runoff against Primorac as the clear favorite.
Primorac returned to politics after a 15-year absence and received 19.4 percent of the vote in the first round of voting. His defeat is another setback for Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s conservative ruling HDZ party after it suffered a corruption scandal in November.
During the election campaign, Primorac criticized Milanović as a “pro-Russian puppet” and accused him of undermining Croatia’s credibility in the EU and NATO.
The Croatian president has mainly representative duties, but is also commander-in-chief of the army. Croatia is currently struggling with high inflation, widespread corruption and a labor shortage.