People attend New Year's eve celebration in Fuzine, Croatia, on Dec. 31, 2019. Photo:Xinhua

Former prime minister Zoran Milanovic, candidate of the top opposition party the ­Social Democrats, will be Croatia's next president, the results of the presidential election showed Sunday.

In the second and final round of the election, Milanovic won 52.7 percent of the votes, while the incumbent Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, candidate of the ruling center-right Croatian Democratic Union garnered 47.3 percent of the votes.

The president's role is ­largely ceremonial in Croatia. The head of state cannot veto laws, but has a say in foreign policy, defense and security matters.

Milanovic, who served as prime minister from 2011 to 2015, ran his election campaign on a promise to fight corruption.

"Milanovic's victory is a wind in the sails of the Social Democrats and will strengthen the party ahead of a parliamentary vote [due in the autumn]," political analyst Branko Caratan told state television.

"For me [from now on] each party will on the formal level be the same. I will cooperate with everyone who will have the ­executive power. I will not make divisions among the ­Croatian citizens," Milanovic told his cheering supporters in the party campaign headquarters.

The outgoing president Grabar-Kitarovic in her speech wished Milanovic a successful five-year term in office which begins in February.