“A Eurosceptic and a nationalist, prudent about the war in Ukraine”. This is the comment on the newly re-elected president of the Republic of Croatia, Zoran Milanovic, that the Balkan analyst Nikolay Krastev made to SIR the day after the presidential election in the Balkan country on 12^th January. Milanovic, supported by the Socialist opposition, won the second round of the vote by a large majority with approximately 75%, while his opponent, Dragan Primorac, nominated by the Croatian Democratic Union – HDZ, got just 25.32% of votes. “During his previous tenure, Milanovic always criticised Prime Minister Plenkovic for pursuing Brussels’s interests too much instead of Croatia’s ones”, explained Krastev, who adds that “Plenkovic too has been in power for years, and the President of the Republic seems to be the only one who can stand up to him”. “With his nationalist messages, Milanovic also attracted a few Christian Democratic voters who had not voted for him on the first round”. In his opinion, “the President of the Republic will take special care of the State and of defending Croatians in Bosnia and Herzegovina, while, as to the conflict in Ukraine, he thinks it is not a war that Croatia should by any means take part in”. “He does not want Croatian soldiers to take part in the conflict”, the analyst remarks. And he believes that in his second tenure Milanovic “will have no reason to please anyone or try to control himself”.