AFP, ZAGREBCroatia was to elect a new president yesterday in an uncertain vote where the conservative incumbent — trying to unite a fractured right wing — faced a serious challenge from a former leftist prime minister. Center-right Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is campaigning on a “real Croatia” ticket, while her rival, former Croatian prime minister Zoran Milanovic, has promised a “normal” liberal democracy of equal citizens. If Grabar-Kitarovic fails to win the presidency, it would deal a heavy blow to the HDZ, whose moderate Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic faces parliamentary elections later this year. “We should come together as in 1990,” before the country declared independence from Yugoslavia, Croatia’s first female president told her supporters in Zagreb. “There is no ‘real Croatia’ ... rather a Croatian republic for all, equal citizens,” the 53-year-old told a campaign rally in Zagreb.

Source: Taipei Times January 05, 2020 15:56 UTC