Croatia is becoming more populist

#87

Dear Friends of Democracy, 

The recent election in Croatia showed two exemplary and worrying developments for Europe.

1) Center-right parties are losing to right-wing populist parties.

The Croatian Democratic Union-led coalition, short HDZ, won 61 seats in the 151-member legislature of Croatia. With this result, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković's party lost six seats. The big winner of the election was the nationalist and right-wing populist party Homeland Movement, which came third in parliamentary elections, with 14 seats. 

2) Populism is also growing on the left. 

Rivers of Justice, a centre-left political alliance in Croatia, came in second, winning 42 seats. The coalition was formed by President Zoran Milanović. His Social Democratic Party (SDP) had failed for years to animate voters and was reduced to playing second fiddle to the HDZ. However, things seemed to change recently when Milanovic transformed himself into a Balkan Trump character. Milanović started rejecting the EU's influence on Croatian politics and criticising NATO and Ukraine. Polls saw him as the most popular Croatian politician. Eventually, he decided to head the opposition campaign as its candidate for prime minister. Croatia's top court declared the candidacy unconstitutional, ruling that he could not run to head the government while still serving as president. But Milanović ignored the ruling. 

Who will govern Croatia?

Both parties, prime minister's HDZ and president's Rivers of Justice, have announced that they want to form a government. If these two strongest parties do not agree to govern together (and it doesn't look like they will), they will have to look for a coalition with populists from the right and left.

So, the next Croatian government will probably be more populist.

See you in Europe, 

Johannes