Croatia’s President Milanović overwhelming favorite to win reelection in a runoff vote

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — Croatia’s incumbent President Zoran Milanović was the overwhelming favorite to win reelection as he faced a candidate from the ruling conservative party in a runoff presidential vote on Sunday.

The left-leaning Milanović comfortably won the first round of voting on Dec. 29, leaving his main challenger, Dragan Primorac, a forensic scientist who had unsuccessfully run for presidency previously, and six other candidates far behind.

“I am hoping for a victory,” Milanović said after voting. “I believe in victory because I think I am worth it and because it is important, primarily because it is important.”

The runoff between the top two contenders was necessary because Milanović fell short of securing 50% of the vote by just 5,000 votes, while Primorac trailed far behind with 19%.

The election comes as the European Union and NATO member country of 3.8 million people struggles with biting inflation, corruption scandals and a labor shortage.

Milanović, 58, is an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. He is the most popular politician in Croatia, and is sometimes compared to U.S. President-elect Donald Trump for his combative style of communication with political opponents.

On Sunday, he again criticized Brussels as “in many ways non-democratic” and run by unelected officials. The EU position that “if you don’t think the same as I do, then you’re the enemy” amounts to “mental violence,” Milanović said.

“That’s not the modern Europe I want to live and work in,” he said. “I will work on changing it, as much as I can as the president of a small nation.”

Milanović served as prime minister in the past with a mixed record. He has been a fierce critic of current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković and the pair have long sparred with each other.

Milanović regularly accuses Plenković and his conservative Croatian Democratic Union party of systemic corruption, while Plenkovic has labeled Milanović “pro-Russian” and a threat to Croatia’s international standing.

Primorac echoed this position as he cast his ballot on Sunday. He said the presidential vote was “very important” and “about the future of Croatia, … about the future of our homeland, our citizens, and, really, the direction that it would go from here.”

Political analyst Viseslav Raos said the increasingly outspoken Milanović has no motive to “try to please someone or try to control himself.”

“If there was no cooperation with the prime minister for the first five years (of his presidency), why would it be now?” he added.

Though the presidency is largely ceremonial in Croatia, an elected president holds political authority and acts as the supreme military commander.

Despite limited powers, many believe the presidential position is key for the political balance of power in a country mainly governed by the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) since gaining independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.

Primorac, 59, entered politics in the early 2000s, when he was science and education minister in the HDZ-led government. He unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2009, and after that mainly focused on his academic career including lecturing at universities in the United States, China and in Croatia.

Milanović denied he is pro-Russian but last year blocked the dispatch of five Croatian officers to NATO’s mission in Germany called Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine. He also pledged he would never approve sending Croatian soldiers as part of any NATO mission to Ukraine. Plenkovic and his government say there is no such proposal.

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Associated Press writers Dusan Stojanovic and Jovana Gec in Belgrade, Serbia, contributed to this report.

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