Meet Croatia’s Youngest Ever Presidential Candidate

Four candidates started campaigning on Tuesday ahead of Croatia’s Presidential elections on 28 December. Among them is the country’s youngest ever presidential candidate…

25-year-old Ivan Vilibor Sinčić, who is an electrical engineering and computing university student, will go up against incumbent Ivo Josipović, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović and Milan Kujundžić in the race to win office for the next five years. So who is the fresh-faced student wanting to take up the nations highest political position?

“In four years of activist and political work, he created and is active as an organiser in a number of initiatives aimed against the political elite and their arbitrariness. Back in February 2011 he was one of the co-organizers of protests against the HDZ government, and since 2012, organises and coordinates the work of Živi zid, an organisation that actively prevents the eviction of citizens onto the streets by banks and corrupt courts. In less than three years he has helped manage to prevent more than one hundred scheduled evictions of citizens, and because of his political activities he has been arrested five times,” said Živi zid.

When Sinčić announced his presidential programme, he highlighted that as president he would continue his fight against debts and evictions, press for Croatia to leave the EU, and he would withdraw Croatian troops from Afghanistan. Sinčić has been somewhat of a surprise package, and had no problem gathering the 10,000 signatures from voters which is required by law to run for the position. Voters can only sign for one candidate, making the task of gathering the required number that much harder, but Sinčić has done it.

The polls however do not give the young student a chance, with incumbent Josipović out in front with 42.3% support, followed by Grabar Kitarović (28.3%) and Milan Kujundžić (11.2%) in a poll conducted by agency Promocija Plus. All candidates have the next 18 days to campaign, before 2 days of ‘silence’ before the elections.