After Zoran Milanović was re-elected in the second round of the presidential elections in Croatia yesterday, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković maintained his position that Dragan Primorac was the better candidate and accused the incumbent president of running a “dirty campaign”, reports the HINA agency, quoted by BTA.
With 99.88 percent of the protocols processed, the incumbent president of Croatia, Zoran Milanović, wins a second term with 74.69 percent of the votes. Milanović, backed by the largest opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP), received the support of 1,122,727 voters, while his opponent, Dragan Primorac, backed by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDU), received 380,536 voters (25.31 percent) out of a total of 3.8 million.
After the end of election day, Prime Minister and HDU leader Andrej Plenković commented: “If there had been a slightly more objective assessment of Primorac and fewer attacks from the far right and the far left, with slightly more objective media coverage, it would have been better“.
Asked if he felt partly responsible for this result, Plenković said that Primorac is an excellent candidate with all the necessary qualities for president. The Croatian Prime Minister noted that, unlike Milanović, Dragan Primorac represents a program to the public. Commenting on the election campaign, the Prime Minister said that Milanović had run a “dirty campaign” and had a “dirty mandate“.
“He created obstructions, blocked, insulted people“I would say to the Croatian left that with Milanović's behavior and mandate you have betrayed all your values when it comes to the rights of women and minorities and freedom of the media“, said the Croatian Prime Minister, quoted by HINA.
Asked if he would sit at the negotiating table with Milanović, Prime Minister Plenković recalled that his government had offered cooperation on issues such as the appointment of the Chief of the General Staff of the Croatian Armed Forces, the head of the Security and Intelligence Agency, the head of the Military Security and Intelligence Agency, and thanks to the government's efforts, a consensus was reached, not thanks to Milanović.
“The list of ambassadorial candidates has been with him for five years. "Everything that we had to do within the framework of the constitution, we have done," said Plenković.
"From tomorrow we continue to work for Croatia. We still have three and a half years of mandate and we face many challenges - security, economy, political and energy problems," Prime Minister Andrej Plenković summed up late last night.