ZAGREB, December 11, 2019 – The Social Democratic Party’s presidential candidate, Zoran Milanović, said on Wednesday that in the last 20 years in Croatia it never happened in the first round of presidential elections that there was no televised debate of all presidential candidates.
“It never happened in the last 20 years that there was no general debate in the first election round of all presidential candidates, including the incumbent president. The incumbent president is the first one to shun such a debate,” Milanović said during a visit to Donji Lapac, a town in Lika-Senj County close to the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina.
“That is a problem, debates tell voters something about the candidates. It is a fact that for the first time we have a president who is running for a second term in office and who has been cowardly evading debates in the first round. If she makes it to the second round, we can expect her to do the same,” Milanović said.
Asked why he did not want to participate in debates without incumbent President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, he said that a debate without the incumbent president who was running for a new term did not make sense in the Croatian election system.
Electoral surveys show certain ratios and it would be logical for the four candidates who weigh the most to confront their views, however, the president is evading it and television broadcasters are tolerating it, said Milanović.
More news about presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.
