Croatians yesterday went to polls to choose a government to navigate the COVID-19 pandemic in a general election campaign that has been dominated by the health crisis.
The pandemic has put the EU country’s tourism-dependent economy on course for a contraction of nearly 10 percent — its steepest decline in decades.
The ruling conservative HDZ party has been touting its relative success in containing Croatia’s outbreak thus far, with an official tally of 113 deaths and 3,094 infections.
Photo: EPA-EFE
However, a rise of cases in the past few weeks, with dozens recorded daily, has renewed fears over the health situation and given the opposition fresh ammunition.
“Everyone is scared about what will happen in autumn,” Vesna Trnokop, a 60-year-old economist from Zagreb, told reporters. “The coronavirus has changed economies, not only in Croatia, everywhere, so we should change our ideas.”
Polling stations across the Adriatic country opened at 7am and were to close 12 hours later.
HDZ was set for a close race with the main center-left opposition and also risked losing votes to a new right-wing movement gunning for third place.
Neither of the two main contenders — Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s HDZ or the Restart coalition led by the Social Democrats (SDP) — were expected to win an outright majority in the 151-seat assembly, surveys showed.
That would leave the populist Homeland Movement of folk singer-turned-politician Miroslav Skoro a potentially key coalition partner.
Opposition leader and prime minister candidate Davor Bernardic has accused the government of “consciously pushing Croatia into a risk” by deciding to go ahead with the election amid the pandemic.
His party canceled electoral rallies over health concerns, while voters have been asked to wear masks and bring their own pens.
Plenkovic was hoping that the uncertain future would inspire voters to stick with HDZ, in power since 2016.
Now is the time for “serious choices and not for political quackery,” said the former European Parliament member with strong backing from Brussels, who has dismissed his rivals as ill-prepared.
“Croatia doesn’t have time for experiments like Bernardic or Skoro,” he told reporters.
Petar Dragic, a taxi driver from Zagreb, agreed with the prime minister and said he would vote for HDZ.
“I’m pragmatic, don’t care who is left or right. Only Plenkovic is capable of pulling funds from Brussels and this is what we need now,” he told reporters, referring to the pandemic and looming economic crisis.
Yet some Croatians were hungry for new faces in a country struggling with massive emigration driven by low salaries and corruption at home.
“A lot needs to be changed,” retired teacher Branka Tekavec said. “There is not enough focus on Croatians leaving for abroad, unemployment and poor salaries of young people.”
The government’s rivals were also seizing on recent graft scandals that have rocked the party, with Bernardic calling for a “new start” instead of HDZ’s “path of corruption.”
In his final address ahead of the vote, right-wing Skoro said that only his new party “guarantees a change, while SDP and HDZ guarantee the continuity of bad governance.”
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