(Bloomberg) -- Croatia’s ruling party won Sunday’s general election, an exit poll showed, giving it the best chance to form a coalition despite missing out on a majority.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s Croatian Democratic Union, known as HDZ, garnered 61 of parliament’s 151 seats, compared with 44 for the Social Democrat-led Restart alliance in second place, according to the Ipsos poll for Nova TV. The premier has a potential partner in the right-wing Homeland Movement that won 16 seats to finish third.
The survey covered only 140 seats. The remaining 11 are allocated to minority groups and the diaspora.
The vote comes at a key juncture for the European Union’s newest state and its 4.2 million people. The new government must finalize this year’s entry into ERM-2 -- the waiting room for euro adoption -- while lifting an economy that relies on tourism for a fifth of output from its worst slump on record.
Plenkovic had earlier looked a good bet for outright victory after weathering the initial Covid-19 pandemic and ending lockdowns to salvage the crucial summer season. But visitors haven’t flocked back to historic Dubrovnik or the country’s hundreds of Adriatic Sea islands. And Plenkovic was criticized for refusing to self-isolate following an encounter with tennis star Novak Djokovic, who tested positive for the virus but is now free of it.
With infections ticking up again, the opposition had questioned whether the ballot should proceed at all.
Homeland, which ran on patriotic issues and opposition to abortion, has signaled it could team up with HDZ. Plenkovic has laughed off suggestions by Homeland’s leader, singer-turned-politician Miroslav Skoro, that he’d have to relinquish his role as premier for that to happen.
The first results are expected to be published after 10 p.m. local time.
©2020 Bloomberg L.P.