Parliamentary and presidential election in Croatia, April and December 2024

Parliamentary election in Croatia, 17 April 2024

On April 17, 2024, Croatia’s parliamentary elections were won by the coalition led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). The outgoing coalition won 34.4% of the vote (-2.8 pp) and 61 seats (-6) out of the 150 seats in the Sabor, the country’s unicameral parliament. The “Rivers of Justice” (Rijeke Pravde) coalition, led by Peđa Grbin’s Social Democratic Party (SDP), took second place with 25.4% of the vote (+0.5 pp) and 42 seats (+2). Despite winning the elections for the third time in a row, the HDZ emerged weakened from the vote, having lost its absolute majority. As a result, Plenković was forced to seek an agreement with other political parties to form a coalition government.

The election was marked by a partial reshuffle of the Croatian political landscape, with the rise of several forces outside the traditional HDZ/SDP divide. Ivan Penava’s national-conservative Patriotic Movement (DP, CRE), which formed a coalition with several smaller radical right-wing parties, came in third with 9.6% of the vote and 14 seats (+2), achieving its best result in Slavonia. Another right-wing populist party, Most (CRE), won 8% of the vote and 11 seats (-1), while Možemo! (We Can!), a center-left environmentalist party, made significant gains with 9.1% of the vote and 10 seats (+5). Two regional parties, the Istrian Democratic Assembly (IDS, RE) and the Independent Platform of the North (2.2%), each won two seats. The liberal party Fokus (1 seat) and national minority parties (8 seats) will also be part of the new Sabor.

Voter turnout was 62.3%, its highest level in twenty years, up nearly 16 points from 2020.

Presidential election in Croatia, December 2024–January 2025

The two rounds of the presidential election in Croatia were held on December 29, 2024, and January 12, 2025. The incumbent president, Zoran Milanović, was re-elected with a score unprecedented since the country’s independence in 1991.

An independent candidate supported by the Social Democratic Party (SDP, S&D), Milanović, former Prime Minister (2011–2016) and President since 2020, known for his populist style, won 74.7% (+22 pp) of the vote in the second round. His opponent, Dragan Primorac, former Minister of Education supported by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković’s center-right coalition (HDZ, EPP), won only 25.3% of the vote. Milanović had come close to victory in the first round with 49% of the vote (+19.4 pp), compared to 19.4% for Primorac.

Turnout was historically low: 46% in the first round (-5.2 pp) and 44.2% in the second (-6.8 pp). This is the lowest turnout since the introduction of direct elections for the head of state in 2000.

The first round highlighted the fragmentation of the Croatian right and the respectable performance of the Greens. Behind Milanović and Primorac, Marija Selak Raspudić (independent, conservative right) won 9.2% of the vote, followed by Ivana Kekin of the Green Left Party Možemo!  (We Can!) (Greens/EFA) with 8.9%. Tomislav Jonjić, affiliated with the HSP (neo-fascist), obtained 5.1%, while Miro Bulj (Most, CRE) garnered 3.8% of the vote and Branka Lozo (DOMINO, CRE) 2.4%.

Milanović becomes the third Croatian president to be re-elected after Franjo Tuđman and Stjepan Mesić. Following these elections, Croatia remains a country with a center-left head of state and a center-right head of government, both re-elected within a few months of each other.

The data

Parliamentary election

Presidential election : first round

Presidential election : second round