Foreign news agencies say in comments on Sunday's presidential vote in Croatia that despite Zoran Milanovic's 2.9 percentage point margin in the first round, incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic is the favourite in the presidential runoff who will probably get more votes of supporters of independent Miroslav Skoro.

Reuters says that “despite her second place in the first round Grabar-Kitarovic, whose first term in office some observers assessed as rather bland with little policy substance and a lot of populist patriotic rhetoric, seems to be the favourite in the second round.”

“Skoro’s right wing voters are unlikely to support Milanovic, so Grabar-Kitarovic seems set to rely on a larger pool of potential voters in the second round,” political analyst Davor Gjenero was quoted as saying.

France Presse underlined that Grabar-Kitarovic now has to win over lost votes that went to Skoro, who came in third in the first round and that she already tried to “woo” his voters on Sunday evening.

The Beta agency notes that the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) believes that citizens who voted for Skoro will now vote for HDZ’s candidate and that she will win convincingly.

Slovenia’s STA poses the question for whom Skoro’s voters will vote for in the second round set for January 5.

Euronews notes that “Grabar-Kitarovic had started off stronger than other candidates but her position has weakened after she made a series of gaffes during the campaign.”

She is still believed to have a slight lead going into the election, followed closely by Milanovic. Skoro is trailing third, chipping away right-wing votes from Grabar-Kitarovic, the agency says.