A legal academic and Zagreb’s rugged mayor were vying for Croatia’s top political job in a runoff election yesterday that pitted two men with vividly different styles against each other for the presidency of the EU-hopeful nation.
Ivo Josipovic, a law expert and classical music composer who is a member of the opposition Social Democrats, led in the first round of voting last month. He got 32 percent of the votes, double that of Milan Bandic, the popular Zagreb mayor.
A second round is needed because no candidate got more than 50 percent. Pre-election polls give Josipovic up to 55 percent of the votes, while Bandic trails with about 38 percent. But many voters are still undecided.
CRITICAL TIMING
The presidential role is largely ceremonial, but the vote comes at the critical time for the country, gripped by corruption and economic downturn as it steers toward EU membership as early as next year.
Both men say they are pro-EU and pledge to nurture good relations with Washington and Croatia’s Balkan neighbors. Bandic, however, has the support of rightists and nationalists, who detest the government’s pro-Western course.
With Josipovic, Croats will be choosing a president “who will not make problems” as the government implements its pro-Western policies, said Davor Gjenero, a political analyst.
Bandic would bring “uncertainty,” given his populist style, which approaches nationalism, and his inclination to make ad hoc political decisions, Gjenero said.
STUDY IN CONTRASTS
The two men are a study in contrasts.
Josipovic, 52, has emphasized his commitment to rooting out crime and corruption.
A professor of international law at the Zagreb Law Faculty, he joined politics six years ago and became a lawmaker. He has an untainted resume, but even his supporters acknowledge that he lacks charisma.
He is backed by leftist parties and urban Croats, as well as by Stipe Mesic, the outgoing president who helped transform Croatia from a nationalist bastion in the 1990s to a pro-Western democracy.
BANDIC THE PATRIOT
Bandic’s stands are more fluid.
He played the Croatian patriot card during the campaign, hoping to reach out to voters still focused on the country’s four-year war of independence from Yugoslavia, which deepened traditional rivalries with neighboring Serbia.
The 54-year-old Bandic, who has promised to “work like a horse for Croatia,” is believed to maneuver around regulations to get the job done. He has been accused repeatedly by local media of cronyism and nepotism and hasn’t showed much knowledge of foreign affairs.
Bandic is supported by the influential Roman Catholic church, war veterans and some rightist politicians.
About 4.4 million Croats are eligible to vote, including around 400,000 living abroad. Polls opened at 7am and close 12 hours later. First results were expected at last night at midnight.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS