(18 Apr 2024)
RESTRICTIONS SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Zagreb, Croatia – 18 April 2024
1. People buying newspapers at news stand on main square
2. Picture of Prime Minister and leader of conservative HDZ party Andrej Plenkovic in the newspaper, headline reading "HDZ wins the election, Homeland Movement kingmakers"
3. Article in newspaper, headline reading "HDZ wins again"
4. Man holding newspapers browsing newsstand
5. Headline in newspaper, reading "HDZ wins relative majority, but the road to form government more difficult than four years ago"
6. Wide of people applauding
7. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Croatian Prime Minister and leader of HDZ party, Andrej Plenkovic:
"The important thing is that HDZ has, for the third time in a row, convincingly won the parliamentary election."
8. Front page of 24 Sata tabloid, showing cartoon drawing of Plenkovic with a shopping basket, headline reading "Now the trading is about to start"
9. Man reading newspapers
10. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Omer Ferosic, pensioner
"Well, the result is a slight improvement over what we had before, but not entirely. People still don’t realize that we need to change things more."
11. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Nikola Marinovic, retired economist
"The turnout was very high, which we haven’t seen before. That’s encouraging, that people are aware that they must go out to vote and take part in the forming of a government which will lead us."
12. People walking down steps leading to farmer’s market
13. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Mirjana Tesija, retired lawyer
"I feel sorry we have had these results, and I think this isn’t good for the country."
14. SOUNDBITE (Croatian) Amira Radevenic, retired lawyer
"It can’t be better than this. This is a realistic situation."
REPORTER ASKING "Are you happy with it then?"
"Yeah, I am. Time to move on. Every [party] must look out and work for themselves. The opposition will have to continue watching what the government is doing. If they are so corrupt, then other parties should make an effort to prove themselves. Because everything we have seen so far is a circus."
15. Various of people
16. Wide of Zagreb main square
STORYLINE:
Croatians had mixed feelings about the results of a highly contested parliamentary election on Wednesday, in which the governing conservatives convincingly won – albeit still needing support from smaller parties to stay in power.
The election followed a campaign that centered on a bitter rivalry between the country’s president and prime minister.
The ballot pitted the ruling conservative Croatian Democratic Union, or HDZ, led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, against an alliance of centrist and left-wing parties informally led by populist President Zoran Milanovic and his Social Democratic Party, or SDP.
Plenkovic, in power since 2016, was seeking a third win in a row for HDZ, and campaigned on a platform emphasizing GDP growth, stability and European integration.
Croatia had joined the eurozone and the EU’s passport-free travel area under Plenkovic in 2023.
SDP and Milanovic – also a former prime minister from 2011 to 2016 – focused on the fight against corruption, amid a string of scandals and graft investigations involving senior HDZ officials.
A polarizing figure, Milanovic’s surprise announcement that he would join the race without resigning from presidency breathed new life into the SDP-led coalition, and also mobilized voters on both sides of the spectrum, with the turnout at more than 50% – a record high.
===========================================================
Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AP_Archive
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/APArchives
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/APNews/
You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/73811e5dfc6c481dae9b620e12e6e714
