Share

04 July 2020 Anxiety about the virus, which has resumed circulating with increasing virulence in recent weeks. Controversy and criticism on the management of the vote. And great uncertainty about the response of the ballot boxes. It is the scenario in which Croatia awaits the political elections scheduled for tomorrow.

Elections that go hand in hand with the re-ignition of coronavirus infections, kept under control from mid-May until 18 June, when the new positives started to grow again at a rapid pace every day, with peaks of 95 on 25 June and 96 on 3 July. Numbers that have weighed on the electoral campaign, in a nation that looks with anguish also at the post-Covid-19 economic crisis, particularly severe in a country with a strong tourist vocation, which this year could be forced to suffer an extremely negative summer season by registering a 9% drop in GDP, according to World Bank estimates.

To reduce the risk of contagion, part of the political forces in the running renounced pre-election activities and rallies, while in the last few days bitter discussions on the legitimacy of the vote have multiplied, since it cannot be excluded that many will desert the vote for fear of the epidemic, while the authorities recommended voters to use masks in polling stations, which are already mandatory for tellers. And to bring pens from home. Strong disagreements also on the voting methods, with the electoral commission that in recent days had denied access to polling stations, a measure opposed above all by the opposition. Findings shared by the Constitutional Court, which on Friday ruled that the state - informs the Hina news agency - has a duty to ensure that all citizens exercise the right to vote, a decision that led the national electoral commission to introduce new criteria to allow safe voting for the infected. Vote whose result is very open.

According to the latest polls, the preferences of the majority of voters are divided equally. The wide "Restart Coalition", center-left led by Davor Bernardić's Social Democrats (Sdp), slightly followed (at around 30%), followed by the HDZ moderates of the current Prime Minister Andrej Plenković (at 29-30%) , which promises a "safe Croatia" at the time of the virus and the post-Covid economic crisis, the electoral slogan. The patriotic movement (nationalist right) of singer Miroslav Škoro is very detached, at 10-11%, which however could become the balance of the future majority, given that the two major coalitions should not alone win enough seats to govern from Sun. The liberal center and the greens, possible crutches of a social-democratic government, should also do well at the polls.