Grabar Kitarovic

But the Social Democrat leader quickly turned the tide, navigating the campaign waters to emerge as winner of the first round in December 2019.

Milanovic verbally dominated TV duels with his opponents, outshining the conservative incumbent, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic.

He defeated incumbent President Colinda Grabar Kitarovic in the second round of the presidential election by more than 105,000 votes.
After 99.85 percent of polling stations processed, the former prime minister won 52.70 percent or 1,031,204 votes, while Grabar Kitarovic won 47.30 percent and 925,764 votes, respectively.

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.

"Such actions by the prime minister are beyond imaginable in normal civilised countries," Grabar Kitarovic told a press conference on Tuesday amid the latest verbal spat between the two top politicians from opposing parties.

"By doing this, Milanovic is putting into question the institutions of the state as well as the citizens' will," she said.

President Grabar Kitarovic sent the law on seizure of assets to the constitutional court on Tuesday, claiming some of its provisions were unconstitutional as they do not help debtors stay in their homes.

The law was passed in 2012 and last amended in 2014 on the initiative of current government, led by the centre-left Social Democratic Party, SDP.

Grabar Kitarovic urged Croatians to unite to solve the country's problems as she was inaugurated on Sunday at a ceremony on St Mark's Square in Zagreb's old town.

"There is nothing we cannot achieve when we are united. I believe in you, my country Croatia," she said in her speech at the inauguration.

A member of the Croatian parliament and leader of the Serbian minority, Milorad Pupovac, said the result in the Croatian presidential elections could have a further negative impact on Croatia-Serbia relations.

Grabar Kitarovic, the victorious candidate of the opposition centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, went to share her unexpected triumph in the early hours of Monday morning with the protesting disabled veterans from the 1990s conflict at the tent they have set up in front of the war veterans' ministry.

Croatian presidential candidate on conditions for Serbia

ZAGREB -- A Croatian presidential candidate has said that she would condition Serbia's EU membership path "with the return of the missing persons from the (1990s) war."

With the second round of the presidential elections scheduled for Sunday, the race between incumbent, Ivo Josipovic, and the centre-right challenger, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, has entered its last days.

Both candidates made the final pitch for swing voters as polls predict the gap closing between them.