The Croatian Democratic Union won Wednesday’s parliamentary elections, according to Euronews.
Croatia’s ruling conservatives triumphed in Wednesday’s fiercely contested election, according to the official vote count. The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) defeated a centrist alliance informally led by President Zoran Milanović and his Social Democratic Party (SDP).
The State Election Commission reported that the HDZ won 60 seats in the 151-seat parliament after counting over 90% of the ballots. The SDP received 42 seats. Third place went to the Statehood Movement with 14 seats.
The turnout totalled over 50% a few hours before the polls closed. In his victory speech, the HDZ leader Prime Minister Andrej Plenković stated:
Starting tomorrow morning, we will start forming a new parliamentary majority in order to form our third government. I want to congratulate the other parties that were defeated by the HDZ.
The HDZ has held the majority of seats since Croatia gained independence from the former Yugoslavia in 1991. The Balkan country became a new member of the European Union in 2013 and joined the European passport-free area and the euro zone last year.
Brussels was due to host the National Conservatism Conference on Tuesday, welcoming Hungarian leader Viktor Orbán and British politician Nigel Farage for the next two days. However, authorities decided to close the event due to possible public unrest.
