Following the televised debate between Zoran Milanovic and Dragan Primorac on Tuesday evening, the parliamentary opposition is convinced that the current president will win a second term in office. At the same time, it is calling for the election to be seen as a referendum against the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).

Misel Jaksic (Social Democratic Party, SDP) said on Wednesday that Zoran Milanovic will become president of Croatia again, while Dragan Primorac, the HDZ party and Andrej Plenkovic, “who is the patron of everything”,” will be defeated.

Jaksic: Milanovic’s charisma among voters will influence the result

He pointed out that there were comments suggesting that “we finally saw the real Milanovic last night: loud, insulting, while during the campaign he was quiet and avoided microphones.”

Dragan Primorac, he commented sarcastically, “behaved like a well-behaved child and presented only correct facts, never lied, slandered or insulted. He was truly marvellous, a perfect example of a great candidate hand-picked by Andrej Plenkovic.”

Jaksic does not believe that voters will stay at home on Sunday. He emphasises that Milanovic’s charisma among voters will influence the result.

Sandra Bencic (Mozemo party) said she did not want to judge who won the debate, but noted that it was absolutely clear who the loser was. “Just like during the entire election campaign, Dragan Primorac showed again yesterday what I said – that he is the anti-candidate and that the outcome of the second round is very simple and predictable,” she said.

Asked if it is possible that Milanovic’s supporters will stay at home on Sunday because they think the election is already decided, she said that nothing is ever decided until the election is over.

Grmoja: “I don’t think the debate will change anything”

“Voters’ positions are already set and very few people will change their stance because of the debate,” said Nikola Grmoja from the Most party, whose presidential candidate Miro Bulj did not make it to the second round.

“I don’t think the debate will change anything, the voters will decide for themselves. We said after the first round that our voters are not sheep and we will not propose anything to them, but the first round has already shown that there is a strong anti-Plenkovic sentiment among the population,” Grmoja said, adding that the result of the second round will most likely be similar.

For Predrag Stromar from the Croatian People’s Party, a member of the ruling coalition, Primorac was a positive surprise because he showed that he can be a statesman who can lead Croatia. “He was concrete, serious and said what I think should happen in the country, that the president and the government should work together for the good of our citizens.”