Ruling Conservatives Win Most Seats In Croatia Election, But No Majority

Sumaira FH Published April 18, 2024 | 08:10 AM

Zagreb, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 18th Apr, 2024) Croatia's ruling conservative party won the most seats in a parliamentary election Wednesday but not enough to form a government, according to almost complete official results, with tough talks ahead to gather a majority.

Incumbent Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) won 60 seats in the 151-member assembly, results from more than 90 percent of the polling stations showed. In the previous 2020 vote, the party won 66 seats.

A centre-left coalition led by the Social Democrats (SDP) won 42.

"The HDZ has for the third (consecutive) time convincingly won a parliamentary election," Plenkovic told his supporters in Zagreb early Thursday.

The party will start gathering a new parliamentary majority to form its government on Thursday morning, he said.

SDP leader Pedja Grbin admitted that the results were not what the party wished for, but said they "showed that... people want a change".

"It's not over," he said at the party headquarters in Zagreb, announcing that talks on a possible post-election coalition would start Thursday.

The nationalist right-wing Homeland Movement party came third, with 14 seats.

Analysts estimate it has a big negotiating potential, which could make it a kingmaker in forming a new government.

An ultra-conservative and a green-left party won 11 and 10 seats each.

"It will be a very difficult negotiating process" to form a new government, political analyst Tihomir Cipek told Nova tv.