Miroslav Skoro

Young green-left candidate Tomislav Tomasevic, leader of the Mozemo! (We Can!) party, came out on top in the local election run-off on Sunday in the Croatian capital, Zagreb, winning the most votes in the history of mayoral races in the city.

Activist Mayor?

Zagreb's Ban Jelacic square. Photo: EPA-EFE/ANTONIO BAT.

With days to go before the key second round of local elections in Croatia, all eyes are turned to the capital, Zagreb, where leftist candidate Tomislav Tomasevic is poised to take the mayorship of the city. His main rival is popular singer and now right-wing politician Miroslav Skoro.

A young left-wing mayoral candidate, Tomislav Tomasevic, leader of the "Mozemo!" [We can!] party, came first by a big margin in Sunday's local elections in the capital, Zagreb.

Whoever wins, experts agree he or she faces a tough task running a city dominated for so long by Bandic, whose energetic, six-term rule over Zagreb was marred by a string of corruption scandals.

"When you put someone on the list who is engaged, and who has dealt with both some social issues and kind of activism, it's one thing; it's another when you put [on the lists] people who are just celebrities," she said.

Singers find their political voice in Croatia

Grabar-Kitarovic had the full backing of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), which has led the governing coalition since 2016 and boasts a powerful party machine across the country.

Even so, Milanovic beat her soundly in the second round in early January, scooping 52.66 per cent of votes compared with 47.34 per cent for Grabar-Kitarovic.

Croatian political experts said the results of Sunday's first round of presidential elections in were predictable and in line with surveys conducted before the election.

"What happened was what we expected and what I predicted," political analyst Zarko Puhovski told BIRN on Monday.

Miroslav Skoro won the most votes in Osijek.
Croatian media and analysts have estimated that whoever "wins" Zagreb will also be Croatia's new president, with Milanovic winning 33.33 percent of votes in Zagreb, followed by Miroslav Skoro with 23.37, and the third was Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic with 20.14 percent of the vote.

Croatia's next president will be elected in a second round of voting on Jan. 5, according to the unofficial results of the State Election Commission (DIP) on Dec. 23.

No candidate passed the 50 percent threshold after nearly all of the votes were counted in the election, in which 11 candidates competed.

Preliminary results of Croatia's presidential election on Sunday, after nearly 100 per cent of votes were counted, put Social Democratic candidate and former prime minister Zoran Milanovic in the lead with 29.55 per cent of votes cast.