site.btaZoran Milanovic Re-elected President of Croatia
As expected, Zoran Milanovic won a second term in office as President of Croatia after a run-off election on Sunday. He garnered 74.68% of the vote, according to information based on 99.66% of tally sheets.
Milanovic, backed by the largest opposition Social Democratic Party, was close to winning the presidential race already in the first round of voting on December 29, when his score was 49.09%. The runner-up, Dragan Primorac, supported by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, won 19.35% in the first round.
Milanovic, 58, is an outspoken critic of the West's military support for Ukraine in the war against Russia. He is the most popular politician in Croatia and is sometimes compared with US President Donald Trump with his image as a political fighter.
The President of Croatia has mainly ceremonial functions, but he does wield political power and serves as supreme commander of the armed forces. Despite his limited powers, many believe that the institution of the President is key to the political balance in the country, where the Croatian Democratic Union has governed most of the time since Croatia gained independence from Yugoslavia in 1991.
Milanovic denies being pro-Russian, but last year he barred five Croatian officers from joining NATO's Ukraine mission in Germany. He vows never to approve the sending of Croatian troops as part of a NATO mission to Ukraine.
/VE/
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