Surprise Election Win to Keep Croatian Ruling Party in Power

PM Plenkovic’s HDZ is within reach of a majority in parliament
Vote comes as EU’s newest member pushes for euro adoption

Andrej Plenkovic
Photographer: Jason Alden/Bloomberg

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By Jasmina Kuzmanovic

July 5, 2020 at 5:14 PM UTC

Updated on

July 6, 2020 at 8:51 AM UTC

This article is for subscribers only.

Croatia’s ruling party scored a surprise victory in Sunday’s general election, defying predictions for a tight race and putting it within touching distance of a majority in parliament.

With almost all votes counted, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s center-right Croatian Democratic Union, known as HDZ, had 66 of the legislature’s 151 seats, compared with 41 for the Social Democrat-led Restart alliance in second place.