WITH a population of more than a million less than Scotland, Croatia has assumed the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the European Union and will lead the EU though the first six months of the Brexit negotiations.
Yet the country’s ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), is currently in crisis after former prime minister, Zoran Milanovic of the Social Democratic Party, was elected president of the country on January 5, easily defeating the pre-election favourite, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of the HDZ.
Now it has emerged that the HDZ is shortly to be riven by a strongly contested leadership election just weeks after Milanovic takes office as president on February 19.
The party’s leadership election on March 15 will see former foreign minister Miro Kovac go up against incumbent Andrej Plenkovic, the Croatian prime minister.
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The Croatian media have said there are deep political divisions within the HDZ, but it is not just a simple left-right split. There have been concerns raised about the prime minister’s style of running the country, and the HDZ has certainly lost popularity recently.
Announcing his intention to run, Kovac said: “The membership will now have a great chance to show, without fear, to whom it wants to show confidence for leadership.
“We are convinced that this is us, we want the HDZ to be a normal, not left, but democratic party that wants Croatia to be prosperous, to have those who are honest and capable in power in Croatia .
“We are for a pure Croatia with clean hands, and only the HDZ can do that.”
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