ZAGREB, May 27, 2019 - The ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the strongest opposition Social Democratic Party (SDP) have won four seats each out of a total of 12 seats allotted for Croatia in the new European Parliament, according to the reports from the State Election Commission (DIP) after it counted ballots from 99.72% of polling stations when the voting for the EP ended in Croatia on Sunday evening
Thus, the HDZ candidates with the five-year MEP term will be Karlo Ressler, Dubravka Šuica, Tomislav Sokol and Željana Zovko, and the SDP will be represented by Biljana Borzan, Tonino Picula, Predrag Matić and Romana Jerković.
The Sovereignists, the independent slate led by former judge Mislav Kolakušić, Živi Zid and the seven-party Amsterdam Coalition have each won one seat. Other slates have not passed the election threshold of 5% of the vote.
The latest results show that the HDZ has won 22.71% of the vote, the SDP follows with 18.71%, whereas the Sovereignists' slate led by MEP Ruža Tomašić has mustered 8.51% of the vote.
The slate of Mislav Kolakušić, who is perceived by media as the biggest surprise of these elections, has won 7.89% and is followed by Živi Zid (5.66%) and the Amsterdam Coalition's slate (5.20%) which will be represented by Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) leader Valter Flego.
President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović congratulated all those who have won seats in the European Parliament at Sunday's EU election. "Congratulations to all those who will enter the European Parliament with wishes that on behalf of everyone they fight firmly for Croatian state and national interests and for a Europe of equals, not of those who are large or small but for those who are equal," President Grabar-Kitarović said.
Slightly more than 3.8 million Croatian voters in the country and abroad were eligible to vote in the EP elections to elect 12 Croatian deputies for a five year term.
A total of 396 candidates on 33 slates vied for the 12 seats in the European Parliament allocated to Croatia. Thirty-one slates are party and coalition slates while two are independent slates.
Of the 12 deputies to be elected, 11 will go to Brussels immediately after the elections while the 12th will go after Great Britain leaves the EU.
The elections were monitored by over 4,700 monitors from ten political parties and two nongovernmental organisations.
Only a smaller number of irregularities were reported during the voting process but they did not affect the process, DIP deputy chair Vesna Fabijančić-Križanić said.
The nongovernmental election monitoring organisation GONG stated on Sunday that the voting was proceeding in an orderly manner at polling stations throughout Croatia and that there was a small number of complaints from voters, and the majority of them referred to the breach of the ban of electioneering.
HDZ president Andrej Plenković said on Sunday night, after the State Electoral Commission (DIP) results showed that the party won four seats in the European Parliament, that he was not entirely satisfied because he had expected five seats, for which the party was short of about 1,000 votes, and that this was due to a big dispersion of votes and a big number of slates.
It's a relative victory, we will have four members in the European Parliament as of July 1 and I congratulate them, he said in the party's campaign headquarters.
Plenković said he was pleased with the higher turnout (about 30%) than in previous EP elections (20% in 2013 and 25% in 2014). He said it meant that Croatian voters identified with European topics and saw the EP elections as important for Croatian society.
He said it was important that the HDZ ran in the elections independently. We stand by that decision and I believe it was the right one, he added.
I believe our MEPs will continue to work on the achievement of our European ambitions. This is a very pro-European government, we lead a pro-European HDZ and I'm confident that we will slowly get to the point when voters will see which political forces are dealing seriously with the difficult problems of Croatia's transition, which is what the HDZ-led government is doing, Plenković said.
We will work with dedication, advocating European values in Croatian society as we have done so far, and which is what Croatian deputies will do also in the European Parliament, he added.
More elections news can be found in the Politics section.
