Dragan Primorac announces candidacy for Croatian president

Dragan Primorac has announced his candidacy for President of the Republic of Croatia. He is entering the race as an independent candidate with the support of the Croatian Democratic Union, which will officially announce it after a meeting of the party leadership. Already yesterday, Primorac's candidacy was supported by the Government's smaller coalition partners, while the Homeland Movement has not yet made a decision on it. 

After being ejected from the Croatian Democratic Union 15 years ago for running in the presidential elections against the will of the party and against official party candidate Andrija Hebrang, this time Dragan Primorac is entering the race with the support of the Croatian Democratic Union behind him.

“And here I am today, with the decision to submit my candidacy for President of the Republic of Croatia. Because Croatia needs change, Croatia can do, and deserves better,” said Primorac in a short address to the public explaining his reasons for returning to politics.

The former minister in Ivo Sanader's government, university professor and expert in forensic medicine Dragan Primorac, who left politics 15 years ago, is now returning to it, motivated among others things by a poll conducted for the Croatian Democratic Union by Ipsos, which showed that 61 percent of voters have a positive opinion of him opinion, while only 49 percent of them think positively about Milanović.

“I am entering this political competition, completely without burden, professionally achieved, with a clean heart and peaceful conscience. Join on my path, which I believe will end with a victory for politeness, goodness, and mutual respect, but also all other values given to us by our parents,” he said.

Primorac is entering the race as an independent candidate with the support of the Croatian Democratic Union, which will officially announce it after a meeting of the party's leadership. Political analyst Krešimir Macan believes that the Croatian Democratic Union is repeating the tried and tested recipe they used with Kolinda Grabar Kitarović.

“He's a man that was once in the Croatian Democratic union. He left and had a successful career. If he wants to be a presidential candidate, they can simply push him as a "catch all" candidate. Meaning a candidate that can attract votes on all sides, which, according to research, no Croatian Democratic Union candidate could do,” said Macan.

And while the smaller government coalition partners supported Dragan Primorac yesterday, this issue is not yet in the focus of the Homeland Movement.

“Party bodies will adopt a decision on these elections and until then, it simply can't be different, all options are on the table. At this moment whatever I tell you would be in the domain of a crystal ball, or guesswork,” said Homeland Movement party president Ivan Penava.

While the Homeland Movement still doesn't know whether it will have its own candidate or support the Croatian Democratic Union, along with Primorac, the number of candidates for the president is slowly growing. In addition to the fact that Zoran Milanović wants to remain in the race, independent Marija Selak Raspudić has already announced her entry into the race, and as they announced, the Možemo party will also have its candidate. There is still time, because the first round of elections will be held at the end of December at the earliest.

Source: HRT