The German media reported on the second round of the presidential election in Croatia and the victory of Zoran Milanovic briefly and mainly through agency reports, focussing on the conflict between the presidential office and the government.

The national Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), one of the few German media with a South East Europe correspondent, states that Zoran Milanovic has won a convincing victory because citizens see him as a counterweight to the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.

“Milanovic was elected in part because citizens see him as a counterweight to the HDZ party and the government dominated by Andrej Plenkovic in the country’s highest political office. Plenkovic won for the third time in April, which indicates the long-lasting trust that a large part of the Croatian population places in him and his party. However, Milanovic’s triumph on Sunday showed that this trust is not unlimited,” wrote Michael Martens, South East Europe correspondent and expert for the FAZ, in his analysis of the Croatian presidential election.

“Candidate of the Kremlin”

Martens says that the HDZ candidate was not helped by the “blatant attempt” to discredit Milanovic as a “Russian candidate”.

“Although Milanovic was indeed against military aid to Ukraine and arrogantly claimed that Ukrainians were fighting for American interests, his cynicism and pragmatism, which are tailored to Croatian public opinion polls on this issue, do not automatically make him a Kremlin candidate,” the FAZ article states.

Martens argues that Milanovic’s re-election also means the continuation of a long-standing rhetorical conflict, “on the level of RTL II”,” a term used in Germany for the sensationalism of the tabloid media.

“For the EU, Milanovic’s re-election means that it must be prepared for interruptions from Zagreb, which this time may be even louder than during his first term in office. Milanovic began his political career as a diplomat in the 1990s, but little has remained of that… Fears that Croatia might now deviate from the prevailing EU consensus on aid to Ukraine despite everything are unfounded. Milanovic cannot bring about such a change on his own,” concludes the FAZ.

Milanovic compared to Wagenknecht

Other media reported on the results of the second round of the Croatian presidential election agency reports.

Spiegel Online emphasised Milanovic’s criticism of aid to Ukraine and his negative attitude towards the Croatian prime minister.

“With his criticism of military aid for Ukraine, Milanovic has also turned to populism in foreign policy. His relationship with Plenkovic, who represents Croatia’s pro-European and pro-Western course, is extremely tense,” says Spiegel Online.

The national Die Welt analysed the phenomenon of Milanovic’s appeal to voters from the left and right before the election and compared the Croatian president to the populist German politician Sahra Wagenknecht, who began her career in the ruling party of the GDR but is now finding supporters with her criticism of aid for Ukraine, migration and her understanding of Russia’s interests.