ZAGREB, December 23, 2019 – Zoran Milanović, who won 29.5% of the vote in Sunday’s presidential election, as against 26.7% won by incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, said “we are going into a second round but we are not going to war, wars are over.”
“We are going into a civilised match and may the better one win. I believe I’m the better one,” he said after his relative victory in the first round of the vote.
Milanović said he would fight to convince everyone for whom Croatian interest came first to vote in the runoff so that Croatia could be a solidarity state because he wanted a country of equals.
Whatever will be, will be in two weeks’ time, there’s no bitterness in me, but there’s no fear either, he said. “I think I’m mature, ready and willing to do this job in good faith, but this is more than a job, it’s a way of life.”
I’m aware that not everyone likes me, but I will treat everyone as a human being, Milanović said. “I won’t treat anyone with hate but in good faith. I’m aware that there will be those who won’t like me, but my job is to reach everyone, both those who will support me and the others.”
“In Croatia no one must come second and no one must be neglected. You have a right to happiness and a peaceful life,” Milanović said.
No one in Croatia will feel like a second-class citizen
“In the Croatia in which I am president, no one will feel as a second-class citizen. I won’t have the strong, financial, executive instruments to achieve that, you’ll have to take my word for it, and what lies ahead is believing two candidates based on what we have done, said and achieved. In this match my chances are big and I once again call on all Croatians, those who didn’t vote, those who did, to think twice, to watch the next two weeks and then vote and give me that little bit of faith without which I don’t exist,” Milanović said.
“When I become president, all my loyalties to anything other than the Croatian constitution will end. I will be a fervent advocate of that constitution. And that’s it, that’s my state, but I am not the state.”
Milanović is the presidential candidate of 13 parties led by the opposition Social Democratic Party. The turnout to the polls was 51.15%. Milanović won 557,900 votes of the 3.855 million eligible voters in the country, while Grabar-Kitarović, the candidate of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, won 503,653 votes.
More news about Zoran Milanović can be found in the Politics section.
