Croatian challenger reprimands PM Plenković days before hotly contested election – POLITICO

“He is treated as a God-given candidate, instead of everyone destroying him,” Plenković said, claiming he was the target of a “left-wing media clique” trying to bring down his ruling party .

The Croatian legislative elections, preceded by a wild campaign, will take place on Wednesday.

Voters will have to choose between Plenković’s ruling conservative HDZ and an opposition made up of small centrist and left-wing parties, led informally by the populist Milanović and his Social Democratic Party (SDP).

Milanović announced his candidacy for prime minister on March 15; two days later, the Croatian Constitutional Court barred him from running until the end of his presidential term in February 2025. Milanović, however, refused to resign as president and campaigned as a candidate anyway. of the SDP.

If Milanović’s SDP performs well in Wednesday’s vote, the party could find itself on track to win June’s European elections as well as December’s Croatian presidential election. Such a scenario would challenge the HDZ’s long political dominance and could potentially foster stronger pro-Russian sentiment in the country, given Milanović’s past pro-Kremlin stances.

The two frontrunners engaged in vicious attacks during a tough parliamentary election.