Prime Minister and HDZ party leader Andrej Plenkovic declared on Monday that neither he nor Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic would be attending Milanovic's inauguration. He accused Milanovic of "blatantly violating the constitution" and dismissed his offer of co-operation as a PR stunt.

“We have taken a stand. We will not congratulate him and we will not expose ourselves to the absurd situation of listening to Milanovic taking an oath on the constitution after he has broken it countless times. Neither I nor the Speaker of the Parliament will take part in this,” Plenkovic said after a meeting of the HDZ Presidency and the National Committee, which was also attended by Dragan Primorac, one day after Milanovic won his second term in office.

Plenkovic “called Milanovic personally five years ago and congratulated him”

Although he pointed out that the turnout in Sunday’s presidential election was the lowest ever, Plenkovic repeatedly emphasised that his party respects the will of the voters.

He dismissed Milanovic’s message about co-operation and the “outstretched hand” as insincere.

“This is a PR gesture. I do not believe in political naivety, false gestures or hypocrisy. We respect the will of the voters, some of whom voted for Milanovic because the government intended to send Croatian soldiers to Ukraine, which is a shameless lie. We recognise the election result, respect the decision of the citizens and will cooperate within the framework of the Constitution, but to hear that he is taking an oath on the Constitution without having a proper programme is out of the question,” he said.

Regarding his decision not to congratulate Milanovic, Plenkovic noted that he had personally called Milanovic five years ago and congratulated him. However, Milanovic did not reciprocate in 2016, 2020 and 2024, when the HDZ won the elections, and skipped the constituent sessions of parliament in 2020 and 2024, Plenkovic said, accusing the media of double standards for not questioning Milanovic’s actions at the time.

Party will now focus on the upcoming local elections

Some coalition partners, such as the HSLS party, and even the mayor of the town of Klis, Jakov Vetma of the HDZ, have congratulated Milanovic.

“We cannot influence our partners. My message to all officials is to pay more attention to the party’s political stance,” he said.

Plenkovic announced that the party would now focus on the upcoming local elections.

On the issue of responsibility for the election result of HDZ presidential candidate Dragan Primorac, Plenkovic explained that this was not discussed at Monday’s meeting.

Asked when the government would submit the Defence Act to parliament and whether it would limit the powers of the president, Plenkovic said that the matter was not on the agenda and that the draft law would be submitted for public consultation as soon as it was ready.