Presidential election in Croatia: Zoran Milanovic declares victory.

The results of the second round of the presidential election in Croatia are now clear. The current President Zoran Milanovic won the election by a wide margin. The Croatian State Election Commission (DIP) announced that with nearly 98% of the votes counted, the current President Zoran Milanovic, supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP), received 74.5% of the votes. The vote share of Dragan Primorac, supported by the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), remained at 25.5%.

With this result, Milanovic achieved the highest vote percentage in the second round of presidential elections in Croatia's recent history. Following his election victory, President Milanovic, who was greeted with great enthusiasm at the campaign headquarters, said, "Thank you, Croatia, thank you, Bosnia and Herzegovina, thank you to all Croatian citizens in our country and abroad. This is a great day for me."

THANK YOU STATEMENT

Dragan Primorac, the former Minister of Education who suffered a heavy defeat on behalf of the ruling party, thanked everyone who voted in a statement made after the results were announced. Primorac said, "I thank my family, my team, and everyone who has believed in me since the beginning of the campaign. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart."

"THE RESULTS CLEARLY REVEAL SOMETHING WE ALREADY KNEW"

Evaluating the election results to the press, the Mayor of Split and leader of the Centar Party, Ivica Puljak, stated, "The results clearly reveal something we already knew. Voters want Milanovic to be president, but at the same time, they no longer want HDZ. This also means that the public values Milanovic."

Croatian Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic pointed out that voters preferred the ruling party HDZ and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic in the general elections held 9 months ago, commenting that the presidential elections indicate the strength of Croatian democracy.

WHAT HAPPENED?

In a country with approximately 3.7 million voters, the voter turnout was around 44%. In the first round of elections held on December 29, President Zoran Milanovic received about 49%, while his closest rival Primorac received approximately 19% of the votes.