Croatia’s main opposition party wins election to European Parliament

The centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), Croatia’s main opposition party, has won yesterday’s election to the European Parliament, the country’s first.

The HDZ has won six of Croatia’s 12 seats in the Parliament, to be occupied from 1 July, when Croatia joins the EU. The HDZ has up to now had three of the 12 observer MEPs. The Social Democrat party, which heads the national government, will drop from six observers to five MEPs. Although it had led in opinion polls, it apparently struggled to mobilise its supporters.

The small Labour Party took one seat, while three smaller parties failed to convert their one observer into an MEP.