January the 13th, 2025 – President Zoran Milanović has ”done a Donald” and has been victorious as the new Croatian President, beating his HDZ opponent Dragan Primorac.
As Poslovni Dnevnik/Mladen Miletic/Davor Ivankovic/VL writes, Zoran Milanović will serve as the Croatian President (again) for the coming five years.
The first exit polls published at 19:00 yesterday were already announcing his decided vistory. After 21:00, with almost 100% of the votes counted and verified, it was clear that SDP’s candidate and other parties had received the support of more than 1 million and 120,000 voters.
In terms of proportion, more than 74% of voter support in the second round has never been recorded in the history of presidential elections in Croatia. Dragan Primorac remained at around 25 percent of support with slightly more than 380,000 votes.
what will zoran milanović bring as croatian president for the next 5 years?
In his victory speech at Zagreb’s Tvornica Kulture (Culture Factory), Milanović stated the following: “I will adhere to the Croatian Constitution, whatever you might think about it, 75 percent of citizens agree with it,”
Regardless of the lower voter turnout than in the first round, the strong support for the new (yet old) president will give provide plenty of confidence in the future. The first presidential term of the only Croatian politician to have ever been both president and prime minister was marked by a specific “communication” with Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and his HDZ government, which, unfortunately, also resulted in tangible consequences for two key segments of the Croatian state – the Croatian Armed Forces and the national security system, or rather the civilian SOA and the military VSOA.
These state institutions have been shaken by the seemingly eternal political quarrels of Croatia’s two main political figures, and this is a problem for the entire nation. Especially in times when the global picture of the world is changing and when Cold War politics is once again in force.
a shake up for the defence ministry
Now that Zoran Milanović is set to remain in Pantovčak and receive another five years as the Croatian President, and Plenković will hold on to his third term for the next three and a half years, nobody in Croatia will particularly care about what happened between the two of them personally. That said, the public will demand and expect that key state institutions related to defence and national security will be unblocked.
It’s clear from the statements of both Plenković and Defence Minister Ivan Anušić that by changing the Defence Act in the Croatian Parliament, they plan to “reshape” some legal solutions to make it clearer what is under the jurisdiction of the Minister of Defence. For example, the illogicality of Pantovčak issuing orders to have a military helicopter placed at its disposal whenever it wants should be corrected.
oluja’s 30 year anniversary
The organisation of a large military parade, which is to be held in 2025 for the 30th anniversary of Operation Storm (Oluja), will also be new. The details aren’t yet known. It will perhaps be held in Zagreb, it might be held on Victory Day, or on May the 30th for Statehood Day, a date that Zoran Milanović doesn’t recognise.
There should be no major problems regarding the president’s participation in regular NATO summits, and no major problems are expected regarding important military procurement procedures. It’s precisely with these procedures that the Ministry of Defence plans to continue and actually complete the largest cycle of new weapons procurement in 2025, the year in which Croatia is expecting two capital procurement processes worth at least a billion euros in total.
The Croatian Government and Pantovčak will have to be guided by each other in the coming period and will have to agree on military issues, appointments, and even the names of the country’s military envoys abroad. Given their history and now infamous war of words, that will be a tall order for the prime minister and the president.