section_path: 2019 presidential campaign
section_name: 2019 presidential campaign
paragraph_text: 2019 presidential campaign
  
  On 17 June 2019, Milanović confirmed that he will be running in the country's upcoming presidential election as SDP's candidate, with the campaign slogan "A president with character". While announcing his candidacy, Milanović said that he wanted to be the "president of a modern, progressive, inquisitive and open Croatia". The SDP main committee, as well as the HSS presidency, gave support to Milanović's bid for president. He was subsequently endorsed by several centre-left and centrist parties, including the HSU, PGS, NS-R, Democrats, IDS, HL, SU, Glas, MDS, SNAGA, and ZS.
  
  The first round of the election took place on 22 December 2019, with Milanović winning a plurality of 29.55% of the vote, ahead of Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović, who received 26.65% of the vote. Miroslav Škoro, who was running as an independent candidate, narrowly failed to reach the run-off election, managing to attract the support of 24.45% of voters. Therefore, this election marked the first time in Croatian history that the incumbent president did not receive the highest number of votes in the first round. Furthermore, Milanović attained both the lowest number of votes (562,779) and the lowest percentage of the vote of any winning candidate in the first round of a presidential election. Milanović received a plurality of the vote in Croatia's three largest cities: 33.02% in Zagreb, 30.79% in Split and 41.87% in Rijeka, and finished second (25.61%) in the fourth largest city, Osijek, which was won by Škoro (33.33%).
  
  A run-off election took place between Milanović and Grabar-Kitarović on 5 January 2020. Milanović won by a margin of close to 105,000 votes, thereby becoming the 5th President of Croatia since independence and the second president to have been officially nominated by the Social Democratic Party, after Ivo Josipović (2010–2015). Since his electoral victory, the newly elected president Zoran Milanović has made his first public appearance at an official event in Rijeka. There he attended the inaugural ceremony of Rijeka as the European Capital of Culture 2020. He met with the mayor Vojko Obersnel, commended the artists, the day-long programme and the opening ceremony. Milanović also praised the founders of punk rock in Rijeka and its 44-year-old tradition, stating that, "By the time when the Paraf were having their first concert, Sid Vicious hadn't been singing in the Sex Pistols yet. These facts are of crucial importance regarding the cultural map of Europe."