- About
- Topics
- Picks
- Audio
- Story
- In-Depth
- Opinion
- News
- Donate
- Signup for our newsletterOur Editors' Best Picks.Send
Read, Debate: Engage.
| topic: | Election |
|---|---|
| located: | Croatia |
| editor: | Katarina Panić |
"Croatian citizens elected me as the president of Croatia for all citizens, and I am happy about that," Milanović said on Sunday night, January 5.
A seemingly ordinary sentence has a deeper significance since the country has been violating the minorities rights for decades, especially among the Serbian minority. Besides, the challenges are the LGBTQ+ community rights, abortion rights, Croatia’s church privileges, migration, to name a few.
"I'll be a president with a character that will always oppose violence, injustice and protect the weak. No one in the Croatia in which I will be president will feel like a second-class citizen. I will not divide Croatian citizens," Milanović stated earlier in a long, robust campaign.
Boris Milošević, the president of the Serbian National Council, which represents the Croatian Serb minority's interests, said he hopes Milanović will remain consistent with what he has been repeating during the campaign.
"The Serbs heard these messages well and voted overwhelmingly for him", Milošević told the media.
The turnout was 54.99 per cent of a total of 3.8 million people eligible to vote. The Social Democratic Party's candidate won 52.67 per cent in the runoff against incumbent conservative Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović – 47.33 per cent – from the governing Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ.
"Although the presidency has no executive power, it certainly may affect things. It is important for creating an atmosphere of peace and tolerance. Last year has shown that Croatia's society desperately needs such messages", Milošević added, referring to numerous incidents against Serbs motivated by religious and nationalistic hatred and intolerance that happened all over the country.
What he expects from the newly elected president clearly shows the position and the problems of the Serb minority in the EU member state in the 21st century.
"We hope all the villages that have no electricity will finally get it. We hope the Serb minority school will be registered as all the other minorities have their schools already. We expect water supply where the system is missing. We hope the property of the Serbian Orthodox Church will be returned to owners", Milošević stressed the day after Milanović was elected.
The parliamentary elections should take place by the end of 2020. Meanwhile, there will be cohabitation between the centre-right Prime Minister, the HDZ leader Andrej Plenković and centre-left President Zoran Milanović.
“Instead of looking back at the fact that we have a government that survives on trade-in interests and social goods, Milanović promised immediately that he and such government will be the best of friends?! Despite the euphoria that his victory has produced in parts of the society, I doubt he would have won the election had he been so honest before election day”, journalist Helena Puljiz wrote in her comment on the election result.
