Djokovic Encounter Risks Sinking Croat PM’s Re-Election Bid
Djokovic Encounter Risks Sinking Croat PM’s Re-Election Bid
(Bloomberg) -- A quick chat with tennis star Novak Djokovic is complicating re-election for Croatia’s prime minister.
Djokovic tested positive for Covid-19 on Tuesday after appearing at a Balkan exhibition tour that was cut short when infections began to emerge. Croatian Premier Andrej Plenkovic, who says he spoke for just two to three minutes with the world No. 1 and tested negative on Monday, is now under pressure to self-isolate or even postpone voting currently set for July 5.
The furore is a setback for Plenkovic’s ruling party, which wanted to capitalize on its success in fighting the pandemic and efforts to save the crucial summer tourist season. A race that just months ago looked straight-forward for his Croatian Democratic Union, known as HDZ, is now much trickier, with the opposition Social Democratic Party enjoying a narrow lead in polls.
“Rejecting isolation was an unintelligent move, a tactical mistake,” Zarko Puhovski, a political-science professor at the University of Zagreb, said Wednesday by phone. “He’ll lose votes. The only question is how many.”
For the European Union nation of 4.2 million, the election will decide which party leads the charge on euro adoption, for which the current target is as early as 2023. The government that emerges will also have to steer Croatia out of the steepest recession on record in the wake of the pandemic.
Neither party is on course for outright victory and would require a coalition partner to cobble together a majority in parliament. The Social Democrats say they won’t work with the the right-wing Homeland Movement of singer-turned-politician Miroslav Skoro in third-place, though HDZ could.
Corruption scandals have already hurt Plenkovic’s standing.
Seven ministers have been replaced amid fraud or conflict-of-interest allegations since he took power four years ago. His ally, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, lost her bid for a second term as president in January after a video emergeed showing her singing Happy Birthday to Zagreb’s mayor -- himself fighting multiple graft accusations.
Croatia ranked 63rd in Transparency International Corruption Perception Index last year -- the fourth-worst in the EU -- compared with 55th when Plenkovic was elected.
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