Conservative HDZ re-elected in Croatia

HDZ, which has dominated the country's politics for most of its nearly 30-year independence, fails to scrap its own majority but receives far more votes than its main rival - a center-left coalition led by the Social Democrats (SDP).

With 90 percent of the votes counted, HDZ holds 68 out of 151 seats in parliament. Then follows an SPD's coalition with at least 42 seats and in third place the populist right-wing party DPMS with 15 seats.

- We have a difficult term full of challenges behind us and the challenges that await are even greater, says Plenkovic.

The Prime Minister's HDZ has been hailed for Croatia's relatively successful handling of the corona virus. So far, around 3,000 have been found infected and just over 100 people have died in the country with 4.2 million inhabitants.

SDP leader Davor Bernardic announces that he is leaving and "congratulates the winner of the election, who is HDZ and Andrej Plenkovic".

HDZ's departing environment minister Tomislav Coric says he expects the party to find a coalition partner in the coming days. There are "political alternatives that are close to us both from an ideological and practical point of view," he tells local television.

One way of claiming the majority of 76 seats would be to ally with members of parliament from ethnic minorities. Then HDZ would not need the support of DPMS, led by folk singer Miroslav Skoro, who has previously both expressed nostalgia for Croatia's pronazist history and has been accused of sexism. DPMS is considered to have attracted some HDZ voters who were disappointed with Plenkovic's policy.