Croatian Democratic Union

Two former politicians, Luka Bebic and Andrija Hebrang, members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, told Zagreb County Court on Monday that they only learned from the media that the defendant, Branimir Glavas, had been involved in war crimes against Serbian civilians in the eastern city of Osijek in 1991.

"There is no external pressure to encourage change; the [European] Commission, for example, has abolished the anti-corruption reports it once had."

Responsibility for the fight, Ivkovic Novokmet said, had fallen on institutions now firmly in the hands of the conservative Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, in power since January 2016.

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 Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, who is also a leader of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, sacked Health Minister Milan Kujundzic on Tuesday after a series of media reports that he did not admit the true value of his real estate holdings.

"The minister was focused on topics that had nothing to do with what he was doing," Plenkovic told reporters.

A Croatian political expert said Sunday's presidential election victory by the centre-left candidate, Zoran Milanovic, was to some extent a protest vote against his rival's "hard-core nationalist campaign".

Zoran Milanovic won the second round of the presidential election in Croatia on Sunday, according to preliminary results, after nearly 100 per cent of votes were counted.

The Social Democratic candidate and former prime minister took 52.70 per cent of the votes, comfortably beating his centre-right rival, incumbent president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, who won 47.30 per cent.

Croatian citizens on Sunday vote in the second round of the presidential election, which pits the incumbent conservative, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, against the Social Democratic former prime minister Zoran Milanovic.

The Croatian presidential election race, which ends on Sunday, has been hit by controversy after a far-right singer, a far-right politician and a woman who helped hijack an American passenger plane all backed the incumbent conservative, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, against her rival, Social Democratic former prime minister Zoran Milanovic.

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.

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.