April 6 (SeeNews) - The ruling centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) has regained its lead ahead of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SDP) for the first time in three months and is now a favourite to win Croatia's general election, according to the results of a recent opinion poll.
If the elections were held now, HDZ would win 28.4% of the vote, up from 26.7% a month ago, while SDP would come second with 27.0% support, down from 29.3%, a survey conducted by Promocija Plus agency for public broadcaster RTL Hrvatska showed on Sunday. The survey, which was carried out between March 31 and April 3 among 1,300 people, has a margin of error of plus/minus 2.77%.
The survey gives the third place to the Homeland Movement (Domovinski Pokret), a political formation led by musician Miroslav Skoro. It garners the support of 10.9% of those polled, down from 11.5% in March.
Skoro came third in the first round of the presidential elections in January, in which SDP's candidate Zoran Milanovic defeated then president Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic backed by HDZ.
The April survey showed that support for the liberal Bridge of Independent Lists (Most), who backed Skoro in the presidential vote, has dropped to 3.8% from 4.8% in March.
The Croatian Peasant Party, HSS, which will run in the elections together with SDP, is backed by 2.7%, up from 2.3%.
At the same time, according to the survey, health minister Vili Beros enjoys highest approval rankings among politicians - 29.2%, up from just 2% a month earlier - as the country continues to battle the coronavirus spread.
He is followed by prime minister and HDZ leader Andrej Plenkovic with 20.9% and president Milanovic with 17.5%.