Populist incumbent sailing to victory in Croatia presidential election – POLITICO

“This is the beginning of the end for Andrej Plenković,” said SDP leader Sinisa Hajdaš Dončić, speaking from Milanović’s election headquarters Sunday night.

Plenković’s center-right HDZ party was weakened by a November corruption case implicating a former health minister, Vili Beros. The dispute brought Plenković’s government into conflict with the European Public Prosecutor’s Office, which accused Zagreb of preventing it from investigating systemic graft in the country.

“Primorac was a bad candidate,” said Dragan Bagić, a sociology professor at the University of Zagreb, commenting for the Večernji list Croatian daily. “This is a defeat of the myth that HZD has a terribly large loyal base.”

Croatia, which has been dominated by Plenković’s HZD since 1991, had the third-highest inflation rate in the eurozone in November and is battling a labor shortage.