2024-04-17 03:57:49
It is not entirely common for heads of state and heads of government to compete against each other in a parliamentary election. President Milanovic wanted to do exactly that until the Croatian Constitutional Court banned him from running.
The parliament (Sabor) in Zagreb decided to hold new elections in mid-March, Milanovic set April 17th as the election date and announced that he would be voting for his Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) against Plenkovic from the center-right Croatian Democratic Community (HDZ) party Wanting to go racing.
President hands out: “illiterate people”, “gangsters”, “brothel”
That would have meant: a president in the election campaign. The Constitutional Court intervened and decided: If Milanovic wanted to run, he would first have to resign as head of state. Party politics is not compatible with his office. In Croatia, the president also plays an important role in forming the government – in total there are too many conflicts of interest for the Supreme Court.
IMAGO/Pixsell/Slavko Midzor President Zoran Milanovic likes to dish it out verbally
Milanovic, not always a man of fine words, did not want to accept the decision and lashed out violently against the constitutional judges: “Peasants” and “illiterate” people were sitting in the court. In other contexts, sayings such as “gangster” in the direction of the government and “this is a brothel” in reference to the alleged conditions in the country were also used.
“Third Republic” and “Government of National Salvation”
On Facebook, Milanovic announced plans for a “third republic” and a coalition for a “government of national salvation.” The 57-year-old has been President of Croatia since 2020; he was previously head of government from 2011 to 2016. The EU accession in 2013 took place during this term of office.
Anecken as a program
Milanovic regularly accuses the current center-right government led by the HDZ of corruption and patronage. In the daily newspaper “Dnevnik” he recently described the ruling party as having the “character of a thief”. He had Infrastructure Minister Oleg Butkovic (HDZ) say: “Boy, you stole (…). You’re going to jail for that.”
Milanovic regularly dishes out verbally and he also likes to offend internationally. He criticized arms deliveries to Ukraine and the Israeli war in the Gaza Strip and spoke out against admitting Sweden and Finland into NATO. During the coronavirus pandemic, he said he would buy vaccines “from the Chechen mafia” if necessary.
Plenkovic sees “political sabotage”
Prime Minister Plenkovic last week again accused the president and the opposition of an “unconstitutional diversionary maneuver” and “political sabotage,” according to the Croatian news agency HINA. He had already described the original approach of the president and the SDP as an “attempt at a mini-coup”.
Reuters/Amel Emric Andrej Plenkovic’s government came under fire
Plenkovic was confident of victory in the election, the Croats were “not blind,” HINA quoted him as saying, they trusted the HDZ and not the opposition. However, this trust has been tested several times. The wear and tear on ministers in the Plenkovic cabinet was high, and there were several corruption scandals in the government’s environment and corresponding allegations.
Sudden rush for new elections
Plenkovic has been Croatia’s head of government since 2016. The 54-year-old was previously a diplomat and played a leading role in negotiating his country’s accession to the EU in Brussels. He is party chairman of the HDZ and, in his role, has moved it from being nationalistic towards the political center.
APA/AFP/Damir Sencar Protests against Plenkovic’s government in Zagreb in February
The parliamentary election was actually not supposed to take place until the fall, and the next presidential election is expected to take place in December, followed by the EU election in June. One can only speculate about the reason for Plenkovic’s haste. It was sometimes said that he wanted to use an early election to forestall a further loss of popularity for his party. The HDZ only had a wafer-thin majority of 76 votes in parliament with 151 seats.
The issue of corruption
Shortly before the new election was announced, a controversial media law caused waves, according to which informants who leak information to the press can be punished. The opposition suspected that the HDZ was afraid of corruption scandals being exposed.
Reuters/Antonio Bronic “Determined against corruption” and “We protect citizens against any crisis”
At the beginning of February, at the instigation of the head of government, parliament elected the controversial lawyer Ivan Turudic as prosecutor general. Turudic, previously a judge at the Supreme Criminal Court, is accused of having been in friendly contact with several people suspected of corruption.
Highest inflation rate in the EU
In Croatia, there are also enough issues to discuss, especially inflation. According to Eurostat, the country has the highest inflation rate in the EU at 4.9 percent (March). Croatia has only been a member of the monetary union since 2023, and the introduction of the euro with an exchange rate of one to 7.5 to the kuna caused uncertainty, especially since before the changeover inflation had reached a high of 13.5 percent in November 2022.
Getty Images/Imago/Grgo Jelavic/Pixsell Croatia has the highest inflation rate in the EU and euro zone, and not just in tourism
The government in Zagreb put together several anti-inflation packages, electricity and natural gas prices were capped, as were the prices for certain foods, the VAT rates on fuel were reduced, and the authorities imposed penalties for unjustified price increases with the introduction of the euro.
According to polls, the ruling party is ahead
Around 3.8 million citizens are eligible to vote in the election, including Croats abroad. The latest surveys published by the public broadcaster HRT last week saw the HDZ with 60 seats in the ten constituencies – excluding the eleven representatives of the minorities and the diaspora – ahead of the SDP (in an electoral alliance with several opposition parties) with 44.
Graphics: ORF.at; Quelle: HR Rating
This is followed by the Homeland Movement (DP) with 14, Most (“Bridge”) and Mozemo (“We Can”) with nine each and three small parties with a total of four mandates. The HDZ needs more than one coalition partner to achieve a parliamentary majority; such a majority seems difficult to achieve for the left-wing electoral alliance.
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