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Financial Times: Grabar Kitarovic's victory barometer for parliamentary elections

ZAGREB, Jan 21 (Hina) - Croatia's new president-elect will use her role to promote stalled economic reform, but since the powers of the president are limited and the details of the reforms that she would champion remain to be seen, perhaps the greatest significance of her surprise victory in this month's election is as a barometer for parliamentary elections expected later in the year, British daily the Financial Times wrote on Tuesday.

"We have come a long way but we have to completely change our current economic paradigm," Grabar Kitarovic told the FT in an exclusive comment. "Like many countries in the European Union, Croatia was hit hard by the economic crisis, but the things we did and did not do exacerbated the situation," she added.

"Grabar-Kitarovic's comments are a direct attack on the Social Democrat-led government with which she will have to work in awkward cohabitation," the newspaper said, noting that details of planned reforms were still not clear.

"Labour liberalisation, further privatisation and paring back bureaucracy could benefit Croatia, but neither the Milanovic government nor the HDZ administrations that preceded it have had the stomach to implement unpopular measures. In opposition, the HDZ has not pushed an agenda for radical reform, despite its criticisms of the government's policies. While espousing social conservatism, its economic programme remains half-baked," the newspaper said.

The FT quoted Josip Glaurdic, a research fellow focusing on the former Yugoslavia at the University of Cambridge, as saying that there would be greater conflict between the two branches of government than had been the case under Ivo Josipovic. "This does not mean there is greater chance for reforms – just more food for the press," he said.

"In her campaign, Grabar-Kitarovic depicted herself as an alpha-female, a product of the countryside who can shoot and drive a tractor and one of the few diplomats who can also milk a cow – no doubt partly in contrast to the somewhat effete Josipovic, whose father was a high-ranking communist. The president-elect has already struck a more hawkish note on foreign policy in contrast to the more consensual Josipovic, who looked to repair relations in the former Yugoslavia," the FT said.

"Despite firm words on the economy and foreign policy, and the symbolic importance of an elected female head of state, Grabar-Kitarovic's victory is arguably most important as a sign that the HDZ is back," the newspaper concluded.

"This will be a massive boost to the HDZ in the run-up to the parliamentary elections. Everything is possible in politics – but an HDZ victory next fall seems nearly certain," Glaurdic said.

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