In 2024 Croatian voters will vote in European, parliamentary and presidential elections, and for now only the date of the European Parliament elections is known, the date of the Croatian parliamentary election is still unknown, and the first round of the presidential election will be held in December.

Croatians will vote in the European Parliament elections on 9 June. This will be the fourth time they are electing their MPs, having done so in 2013, immediately after Croatia joined the EU, in 2014 and in 2019. The European Parliament has 705 members elected in the 27 member states and Croatians will elect 12 MEPs.

Deadline for Croatian parliamentary election 15 September

The Croatian political and general public is most interested in the election for the national parliament, the date of which is still unknown, the deadline being 15 September.

The incumbent, tenth parliament was inaugurated on 22 July 2020. The 2024 parliamentary election must be held 30 to 60 days since 22 July. If the majority decides so, the parliament can be dissolved earlier.

After parliament is dissolved, President Zoran Milanovic will call the election and he has four Sundays to choose from for the vote. At least 30 days must pass between his decision on calling the parliamentary election and election day.

The 2024 parliamentary election will be held under the new law on constituencies, which did not change the existing election system but redrew the constituencies to a certain extent, as a result of which one in five voters will vote in a different constituency than before.

The 151 MPs will be elected in ten constituencies once again, 14 per constituency, eight MPs will be elected by the national minorities and three by Croatian citizens residing abroad.

Who will run with whom?

The ruling HDZ will likely run in the election independently, but it could have coalition partners in some constituencies.

Mozemo! party has said it will not run together with the Social Democratic Party but independently, and that a coalition with the SDP is possible in some constituencies if the SDP agrees to that.

Bridge and Croatian Sovereignists will run together. The Homeland Movement, for now, has no partners.

Some parties have already formed pre-election coalitions. Liberal party Fokus, the Istrian Democratic Party, the People’s Party – Reformists and the Primorje-Gorski Kotar Alliance are running in the election in a coalition called For a Better Croatia, while the Social Democrats, the Croatian Peasant Party and the Croatian Labour Party have formed a coalition called Our Croatia.

As of recently, Croatia has a new political party, Damir Vandjelic’s Republic, which has announced that it will run in all three 2024 elections.

Incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic (HDZ) has announced that he will run for re-election. Pedja Grbin (SDP) and Sandra Bencic (Mozemo!) have announced they will also run for prime minister. Most party is also interested in having the office of prime minister and the likeliest candidates are Marija SelakcRaspudic and Nino Raspudic.

President Milanovic to run for a second term?

December will see the first round of the presidential election. The president is elected for a term of five years. The presidents to date have been Franjo Tudjman, Stjepan Mesic (elected twice), Ivo Josipovic, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic and the incumbent Milanovic.

It is expected that Milanovic will run for a second term. His current term ends on 18 February 2025. It has been announced that all the major parties will nominate a presidential candidate. The SDP has said it sees no reason not to support Milanovic’s re-election.

In order to be elected, the president must win a majority of the votes of all the voters who voted. If this does not occur, the two candidates with the most votes compete in a runoff which takes place 14 days after the first round.