(ANSAmed) - ZAGREB, MAY 17 - In administrative elections held Sunday in Croatia, the Croatian Democratic Union (Hdz, conservatives) of Premier Andrej Plenkovic was confirmed as the first political force in the country, with excellent results in Slavonia (east), parts of Dalmatia. However, the great winner was the new coalition between the Greens and the radical left that in Zagreb obtained 45% of the vote.
    The 39-year-old environmentalist Tomislav Tomašević, leader of Možemo (We can), will compete in two weeks in a runoff for the direct election of the mayor of the Croatian capital with the head of the nationalist right, Miroslav Škoro, who won 12% of the vote on Sunday.
    Tomašević is practically sure of winning the runoff and to have a strong majority in the municipal assembly that will allow him to realize the many promises he has made, starting with the total dismantling of the vote-buying, corrupt system that held in power in Zagreb for 20 years the former mayor Milan Bandić, a populist without clear ideological positions who died in February of a heart attack.
    In Split, Ivica Puljak (27%), leader of a small centrist liberal party, will compete in a runoff on May 30 with the conservatives of Hdz who risk losing control of the Dalmatian city. In Rijeka, the deputy mayor Marko Filipović (30%), will try to defend the last stronghold of the Social Democrats, the great losers of these elections, in a competition against the independent candidate Davor Štimac (16%) who wants the votes of the center and right and to dethrone for the first time in the country's history the center-left from the north Adriatic city.
    In local elections, conservatives lead in seven out of 20 counties (provinces) and have already conquered power in six others, confirming their leadership at a national level.(ANSAmed).