Croatia elects this Sunday between to keep in the Presidency, the conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, or to entrust the charge to the former social democratic prime minister, Zoran Milanovic. Both come to the decisive day very evenly matched (a survey draws basically a technical draw) after the first round, the past day 22, in which Milanovic won the 29,55% of the votes, and Record-Kitarovic, the 26,55%. The polls will close at 19.00 local time (the same in mainland Spain).
The key of the result, match analysts, lies in what will the 24,45% of voters who decided in the first round by Miroslav Skoro, an ultra-nationalist singer folk that has advance that this Sunday will issue a null vote. By ideology, the natural destination would be the current president, but the polls suggest that at least one-third will remain in the home. The undecided are estimated to be between 13% and 20%. “Milanovic is seen as a threat to ideological and existential to the extreme right, so that it is likely that a good part of the votes to Skoro go to Record-Kitarovic. That is why Milanovic would benefit from a low turnout,” notes by e-mail Robin-Ivan Neuter, an analyst at the think-tank European Council on Foreign Relations. Grabar-Kitarovic has worked hard in the campaign by appealing to the drive to prevent the return of “the old and the recession”, while Milanovic has pointed out that “every vote” counts in a battle from “very tight”.
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The two candidates in the running have a similar age (51, it; 53, he) but profiles are significantly different. The president is often defined as a “woman of the people”: is the daughter of a butcher (as recalled in the face-to-face election), grew up in the rural northwest of the country and has joked to be one of the few people in his party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), who knows how to milk a cow. An image nearby that took him out of the anonymous international in the last Soccer World cup, in Russia in 2018, in which Croatia was runner-up, and in that Record-Kitarovic stressed for money to pay for a square plane in economy class for travel to a party, sit in the stands and celebrate the goals as any fan.
Grabar-Kitarovic, was considered a centrist when it came to the presidency in 2015, but each time has been courting more to the extreme right and shown warmth with the fascist past of the country. The latest controversy, this Wednesday, was the video in support of the nomination, released by her party on Twitter, Julienne Busic, american convicted for participating in the hijacking of an aircraft in the united STATES in 1976 to call attention to the cause Croatian during the socialist Yugoslavia. Before the first round, posted —and then deleted— in your account of Instagram a picture in memory of Slobodan Praljak, the bosniocroata that he committed suicide theatrically within the international tribunal that condemned for war crimes; he promised to bring cakes to the mayor of Zagreb —newly-charged for a corruption case— if he ends up in prison; and he also announced that salaries of 8,000 euros, ten times above the average wage, to restrain the indent from migration.
In this context, the pro-european candidate, social democratic, which is defined as the “only normal” and ensures that you have “the heart to the left and head to the right”, has played the trick of moderation. “A president with character”, has been his motto election to counter its widespread image of the snobbish urbanite that flashed when I was studying Law at the university but managed badly as prime minister (2011-2016) the impact of the euro crisis. “Your temperament, along with the fact that sometimes it can be quite condescending, affected sometimes to his electoral appeal”, pointing to Castrate. One of the keys is precisely if the great strength of the social-democratic (the opportunity to unite the vote of center and left-fearful of a candidate more to the right) will weigh more than his lack of charisma.
the decision of The voters has a derived internal and community. In Croatia, because the presidential election serve for examination of the general elections that will be held at the end of the year in which the HDZ aims to strengthen their majority, and the social democrats —that the european may have obtained a better result than expected— to return to power. The party of the president governs in coalition with a liberal education and with the support of several smaller parties and independents.
The influence in the EU is that Croatia, the last country to enter the EU (in 2013, just before the start of the current cessation of de facto eu enlargement), it’s from the past day 1, the rotating presidency. The head of State has powers protocol, but has the weight that gives to be the face of the country abroad.
