December the 31st, 2024 – As existing president Zoran Milanović and opponent Dragan Primorac go head to head in the second round, who will become the next Croatian president?
He’s sometimes referred to as “Croatia’s Trump”, because the always incumbent Zoran Milanović is no stranger to controversial and sometimes downright bizarre statements. He put Croatia’s official position in the Ukraine-Russia war into question despite Croatia’s official, unwavering stance of support to Ukraine with his questionable comments. He’s also very well known for his bitter (albeit very creative) war of words with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković.
It seems that his slogan of being a “president with a character” isn’t far from the truth. Though some would argue that his outspoken character isn’t necessarily the most diplomatic for a man in his position as it could be.
Then we come to Dragan Primorac, Milanović’s conservative rival in the fight to become the next Croatian president. Despite Milanović having come tantalisingly close to winning, the Croatian presidential election will go to runoffs in a couple of weeks.
when is the next round of voting scheduled?
The second round of Croatian presidential elections is scheduled for January the 12th, giving the public a breather to enjoy the turn of yet another new year.
a look at the exit polls
Looking solely at the exit polls, we can clearly see that it came very close indeed. It was strongly predicted that Milanović (SDP) would easily secure victory and become the new(ish) Croatian president, and win the first round of voting with an impressive 51.48% and 50.73%. Were that set to be the case, it seemed as if Primorac would be free to kiss his political ambitions goodbye for now, but it wasn’t so.
It turns out that those figures were an exaggeration of just how well the incumbent Croatian president would actually perform. He actually won 49.11% of the public vote, seeing a second round of voting scheduled for the aforementioned date in January 2025.
His HDZ opponent Dragan Primorac performed even more poorly, securing less than 20% of the vote (19.36% of it to be precise).
making history in the fight to become the next croatian president
If Zoran Milanović secures his current title of Croatian president, he’ll enter into the history books. Only Dr. Franjo Tuđman and Stjepan Mesić (two names that illicit varying responses indeed) have ever been re-elected to their presidential positions so far.
In addition to that, the vast “ocean” of 30% between the two candidates to become the next Croatian president is nothing to laugh at. In fact, it’s the largest gap in the history of the independent Croatian state.
mid-january will reveal all…
It seems it’s become another classic tale of SDP versus HDZ, which will likely leave most of the public feeling that it’s all “sve po starom” whoever wins. Croatia bids farewell to 2024 and welcomes 2025, at least voters can breathe a sigh of relief before the next round of voting begins. The next Croatian president will remain in that position for the next five years before another vote seeks to keep or remove them.
