Croatian Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenkovic commented on Monday on the actions of President Zoran Milanovic and the opposition party SDP in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. He said that the party was now focussing on Milanovic, who had "the worst government in the history of Croatia".

The Prime Minister made his comments in the run-up to the 31st anniversary of the founding of the HDZ in Sisak-Moslavina County.

He added that Milanovic had done “absolutely nothing” as president. In comparison, he referred to everything the government had done in “eight very challenging years”.

Asked whether the shock had paid off for the SDP given their sudden rise in approval ratings, the Prime Minister said that “some phone calls were made in a hurry, so they got what they got and in principle this is not considered serious”,” noting that serious polls on the ground had shown otherwise.

Asked again about the election campaign, Plenkovic said that the HDZ did not care at all about the SDP and its partners or their “circus”.

“The only thing we achieve with their performance is a bizarre image of Croatia for everyone watching us. They wonder what is going on here,” he said.

Among other things, he called on the SDP’s partners to ask themselves whether they want to be part of this chaos and this circus.

He also said the SDP had probably conducted polls and seen that it was losing, so it was willing to do anything to reverse this trend. “They can not bear to stay in opposition for three terms. That’s the main reason.”