Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who is running for her second term in office, at midnight on Wednesday formally launched her campaign in her birthplace of Drazice, in the hinterland of the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka.

Addressing a crowd of locals at the town’s culture centre, Grabar-Kitarovic recalled that she had also launched the campaign for her first term at the same spot five years ago.

She announced that her campaign trail would take her through Croatia all the way from the country’s southernmost point at Prevlaka to the eastern town of Vukovar.

“I believe that Croatia can become one of the most prosperous countries, but that cannot be achieved overnight,” Grabar-Kitarovic said, summarising her seven-point re-election platform.

Commenting on the past five years during which she was in office, she said that Croatia was “no longer in a recession.”

“The economic indicators are not the worst in Europe, wages are growing, although still insufficiently, emigration is abating, and some of those who had left the country are returning home, and we have also restored the dignity of war veterans,” she added.

She also said that her campaign would be “free of arrogance and despondency” as well as of “divisions.”

Croatia’s presidential election is set for 22 December.