ZAGREB, June 21, 2019 - President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović announced on her Facebook page on Thursday that she would not decide on running for a second term in office before Homeland Thanksgiving Day on August 5.
She thanked all the people for supporting her to run for a second term, "especially the party whose candidate I was five years ago."
Grabar-Kitarović said that she wanted to attend the Homeland Thanksgiving Day ceremony in Knin as President and not as a presidential candidate, "to leave this special day for Croatia out of the context of a political campaign."
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković recently called on Grabar-Kitarovic to run for a second term in office, saying that his HDZ party was waiting for her "with open arms", but that it was up to her to decide the timing of her announcement.
Former prime minister Zoran Milanović said recently that he would be running for the presidency as the candidate of the SDP party. According to media reports, pop singer Miroslav Škoro will join the race as an independent candidate and is expected to announce his candidacy by the end of this week. Elected MEP Mislav Kolakušić and MP Tomislav Panenić have also expressed their intentions to run for the presidency.
Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said in Brussels on Friday morning that the incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović had the prerogative to opt for the opportune time for her to announce her candidacy for a second term, and presidency challengers are supposed to express their aspirations before that.
"She (is the incumbent president. Let the contenders announce their decisions, while she has the prerogative to decide when she wants to formally announce whether she will rerun for the presidency," Plenković said.
More news about the upcoming presidential elections can be found in the Politics section.
