Local Elections – HDZ’s Test of Popularity

International news agencies covered the local elections in Croatia, who stressed that there were no surprises regarding the results.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – International news agencies on Monday published reports about Sunday’s local elections in Croatia which were, as they write, a test of popularity of the ruling party, the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ). 

The Associated Press writes that the electoral results indicate that the ruling conservatives in Croatia have not managed to get mayor seats in large cities at the local elections and stressed there were no surprised at the elections.

Prime Minister Ivo Sanader’s HDZ, which won its second mandate in November 2007, lost in Zagreb and Split, the AP reported.

‘Test for the conservatives’ 

The France Presse says Croatians voted at Sunday’s local elections which are considered a test for the ruling conservatives who were forced to adopt unpopular measures during the global economic crisis.

Croatia’s largest opposition party, the Social Democratic Party (SDP) “did not achieve the goal it had set out for itself, which is to become Croatia’s strongest party, even though it won more votes than the ruling HDZ in three of the largest cities”, the Slovenian news agency, STA, reported.

- Sunday’s local elections have shown that the trend of decrease of the turnout of voters has been stopped, which was present since the late 1990’s – the Slovenian news agency reported.

Serbia’s Tanjug reported that the two largest parties in Croatia, the HDZ and SDP “achieved at the local elections what they set out to be their most important goal: the SDP won in the largest cities, apart from in Osijek, while the HDZ was victorious in 14 counties and the SDP in five.”

- Before the elections, the SDP stressed that winning in the largest cities is the most important, while the HDZ said that the winner is the one with the most county prefects, mayors and municipal mayors – Tanjug reported.