Milanović and Komadina Fighting For Votes in Zagreb.
Zagreb is a city which both candidates for SDP president want to win, but it is especially important for Zoran Milanović. Not only is Zagreb the largest city organization of SDP with 6,000 members, but it is important to Milanović because he wants to demonstrate to the head of the city party branch Davor Bernadić, who supports Zlatko Komadina, that he can beat him in his own yard, reports Večernji List on February 29, 2016.
Last week, four party gatherings were held in Zagreb. The response from party members was great with all seats being filled, and Milanović and his team now believe that he has quite a good chance in Zagreb. “No one can predict the final outcome with any certainty, but the situation is definitely better than we expected. The problem of the SDP branch in Zagreb is the fact that its influence among people is getting weaker. Many of those who meant something in Zagreb have left the party. The whole branch has been neglected, which was reflected in election results for the city assembly”, says one of Milanović’s associates.
In it strange that SDP in Zagreb never had worse results than at the last local elections, while at the recent parliamentary elections, when the candidate list of Croatia Is Growing coalition was led in the first parliamentary constituency by Milanović, SDP achieved good results. That is the reason why some have proposed that Milanović should run for the Zagreb mayor at the next local elections, but he has declined any such ideas. His team is encouraged by the fact that out of 11,000 signatures of support they have gathered for Milanović’s bid, as many as 2,400 of them have been collected in Zagreb.
“These signatures do not mean anything because the majority of party members gave their signatures to both candidates. The real votes will be counted on 2 April, and the majority will support Komadina”, say associates of Zlatko Komadina, Milanović’s main rival. His team also gathered more than 2,000 signatures of support in Zagreb, and they are confident that Komadina has the support of about 60 percent of the membership in the country capital.
“That is our estimate based on an analysis of membership, and on the basis of events which Komadina organized in Zagreb. I do not know on whose support is Milanović counting, considering that Komadina has more support in all city districts except Trešnjevka-North, Lower Town and Upper Town”, says an associate of Zlatko Komadina. Besides, he adds, Komadina has the support of majority of the SDP Youth Forum in Zagreb.
“As for Milanović’s events, always the same people come to them. In Zagreb, there were perhaps 400 different people who came to his gatherings”, says a member of Komadina’s team.
