Croatia holds first general vote since joining EU

The Patriotic Coalition had been expected to win by a margin of about five parliamentary seats in the 151-seat parliament, which would likely entail post-election negotiations with smaller parties.

Tomislav Karamarko, leader of the conservative opposition Croatian Democratic Union party, casts his ballot in Zagreb. More than 600,000 refugees have arrived in Europe since January, with more than half of them fleeing war-torn Syria.

The Eastern European country saw steady growth for the first few years of the 21st century until a continentwide recession hit in 2008-09, sinking growth and sending unemployment rates skyrocketing. The survey of 30,000 voters covered only 140 seats of the chamber’s seats, with the remaining 11 going to minority groups and Croatia’s diaspora. “The party which has won the most number of votes must lead Croatia in the future”, he added with his supporters chanting “Victory, Victory”.

His insistence that Croatia take a humane stance on the migrants and facilitate their flight has also struck a chord with voters who remember the violence and displacement their own country suffered during the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

“Croatia is threatened by a huge wave of migrants entering the country”, Orban’s letter of support, read out at a conservative rally, said. “Croatia desperately needs a change”.

Still, public debt will climb to 91.7 percent of gross domestic product in 2016, according to the European Commission, and the government estimates a budget deficit of 4.5 percent of GDP this year, above the EU’s 3 percent limit.

But his party was voted out of power in 2011, following a series of high profile scandals involving then-prime minister Ivo Sanader.

The crisis seems to have helped diplomat-turned-politician Milanovic.

The conservatives have criticized Milanovic’s government for allowing a free flow of migrants and have hinted they would build fences and deploy the army to the border to stop the flow. Another 30,000 migrants are on their way from Greece to Croatia, state radio reported on Sunday.

A grand coalition might give the political space for reform; while Most’s fiscal conservatism could cajole a government it participates in – or a minority administration it backs conditionally – in that direction.

Foreign diplomats say the two main parties are being encouraged to get over their visceral distaste for each other and form a German-style grand coalition.