Croatian Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader Zoran Milanovic has said that he has taken note of the outcome of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) intra-party elections the same way he takes note of a game's result, adding that the new HDZ leader Tomislav Karamarko "will now be able to see a totally new dimension of politics".
The HDZ is a parliamentary party and has its agenda, it is a big party, the second strongest one and in political terms it is not the same to us who will lead it, Milanovic said in his comment in Chicago on Monday regarding the news that Tomislav Karamarko succeeded Jadranka Kosor at the helm of the HDZ at an election convention this past weekend.
The SDP leader said that in the run-up to the HDZ election convention he had not made comments on what had been going on in the HDZ and that he would not comment now, either.
Deputy Prime Minister and Croatian People's Party (HNS) leader Radimir Cacic said on Monday in Zagreb that Karamarko's victory was expected given than other candidates were lacking in strength or had been discredited.
He said that he only did not expect Milan Kujundzic to make it to the second round of voting.
In the runoff, Karamarko, who mustered 848 votes from HDZ delegates in the first round, defeated Kujundzic who entered the runoff with 523 votes from the first round. In the second round of voting, Karamarko won 971 votes as against 860 votes won by his rival.
Karamarko's predecessor Kosor did not make it to the runoff as she won only 357 votes in the first round.
