With nearly all of the votes counted, left-leaning Milanović won 49% while his main challenger Dragan Primorac, a candidate of the ruling conservative HDZ party, trailed far behind with 19%.
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00With nearly all of the votes counted, Croatia's left-leaning incumbent President Soran Milanovic
00:07has won the most votes in the first round of the presidential election.
00:13Milanovic is an outspoken critic of Western military support for Ukraine and its war against
00:18Russia. He is often compared to Donald Trump for his combative style of communication with
00:24political opponents. Euronews Serbia's correspondent was on the ground in Croatia after the results.
00:54Milanovic is competing with HDP candidate Dragan Primorac, who has won around 19% of the votes in the first round.
01:02The results were noticed by liberal candidate Ivana Kekin and conservative candidate Maria Selak-Raspudić,
01:10who have won around 9%. 5% of the votes were won by independent candidate Tomislav Jonic,
01:17while all the other candidates have won less than 5%. I would like to remind you that the
01:22official statement of the election campaign said that the second round of the presidential election
01:28will be held in Croatia, but no research has been able to establish that Milanovic will achieve
01:34such a convincing victory and that he will be on the verge of becoming president after the first round.
01:40More than 3,750,000 Croatian citizens will vote for the president on January 12th in the second round,
01:47and the current president Zoran Milanovic and HDP candidate Dragan Primorac will compete for the presidency.
01:56For Euronews in Zagreb, Dušan Ilić.