September the 8th, 2026 – A brand new poll has showcased the absolute worst result for HDZ in the last two years, with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković personally scoring very poorly.
Public dissatisfaction over the hazardous waste affair in Lika has been reflected on the political scene, as shown by the latest monthly CRO Demoskop survey. Index reports that according to the poll conducted for RTL this month, both HDZ and SDP recorded a significant drop in support, with the ruling party, being HDZ, falling to its lowest level in the past two years.
If parliamentary elections had been held at the beginning of the month, HDZ would still have been the relative winner. Index reports that the CRO Demoskop survey was conducted by the agency Promocija plus from 1 to 3 September using a telephone survey (CATI) on a representative sample of 1,000 respondents. The sample was stratified by counties and settlement size, with control of socio-demographic characteristics. The standard sampling error is ±3.04% at a 95% confidence level.
most and Možemo! outperform hdz and sdp
According to the latest poll, HDZ has the support of 25.3% of voters, a drop from 27% seen in July. This is also the party’s weakest result since April 2024. SDP is in second place with 20.5% support, also recording a decline from 21.5% in July and its lowest rating in the current term. Možemo! ranked third with 12.9% support, a slight increase from 12.2% in July. The biggest rise was recorded by Most, which jumped from 7.7% to 9.5%. It is followed by the party Drito with 1.8% and Domovinski pokret with 1.6%. Both parties have slightly lower support than in July. Most thus recorded a rise of 1.8 percentage points, and Možemo! of 0.7. HDZ is down by 1.7 percentage points, SDP by 1.0, and Drito and DP by 0.5 percentage points each.
Other parties have support below 1.5%. Above one percent are Domino (1.4%), Centar (1.1%), Pravo i pravda (1.1%), IDS (1.0%) and Nezavisna platforma Sjever (1.0%). Below that threshold are HNS (0.9%), Hrvatski suverenisti (0.8%), HSU (0.8%), HSS (0.7%), HSLS (0.4%) and Fokus (0.3%). All other parties together have two percent support, while undecided voters stand at 16.9%.
president milanović receives the most positive rating among politicians, while pm plenković receives the worst
The most positively perceived politicians are as follows:
- Zoran Milanović – 23%
- Andrej Plenković – 15.6%
- Tomislav Tomašević – 4.1%
- Marin Miletić – 3.8%
- Ivana Kekin – 2.9%
- Dalija Orešković – 2.7%
- Nikola Grmoja – 2.5%
- Ivan Anušić – 2.2%
- Sandra Benčić – 1.6%
- Biljana Borzan – 1.5%
The most negatively perceived politicians are as follows:
- Andrej Plenković – 37.3%
- Zoran Milanović – 12.3%
- Tomislav Tomašević – 5.6%
- Sandra Benčić – 2.5%
- Ivan Penava – 2.3%
- Milorad Pupovac – 2.1%
- Dalija Orešković – 1.8%
- Hrvoje Zekanović – 1.6%
- Siniša Hajdaš Dončić – 1.4%
- Andrija Mikulić – 1.4%
most believe the country is heading in the wrong direction
This September, only 17.5% of citizens believe that Croatia is moving in a good direction, a drop from 20.2% in July. At the same time, the share of those who think the direction is wrong rose from 70% to 74.6%. Undecided stand at 7.9%. Among HDZ voters optimism prevails and 55.4% of them consider the direction good. Voters of opposition parties are considerably more critical.
President Zoran Milanović received an average grade of 3.08 for his work. He received the highest grade from SDP voters (3.97) and the lowest from HDZ voters (2.32). The work of the Croatian Parliament was rated 2.16. It received the highest grade from HDZ voters (3.0) and the lowest from Možemo! platform voters (1.69). The Government received a grade of 2.23 for its work, the lowest grade in the past year. HDZ voters rated the Government’s work at 3.81, while voters of other parties were considerably stricter. Support for the Government’s policy fell to 25.7%, compared with 27.6% in July.
the appalling lika hazardous waste affair is the hot topic
The hazardous waste affair in Lika and other parts of the country was the most important topic of the past month for as many as 40.4% of respondents. This is one of the highest results for a single event since measurements began in 2004. In second place in importance is the fire in Omiš and the surrounding area, which 27.9% of citizens singled out as a key event. These are followed by the heatwave (5.4%), inflation (3.5%), the extraordinary session of Parliament (3.0%) and the rise in fuel prices (2.9%). Among the more important topics are also sporting successes, Thompson’s concert in Vukovar and arrests related to arson.
