 The Croatian Social Democrats remained a parliamentary party for a year thanks to Pančić but they vanished after the parliamentary elections in 2011.In April 2007, Ivica Račan passed away and was replaced by a new and young president, Zoran Milanović.The Croatian prime minister and president of the Croatian Democratic Union at that time, Ivo Sanader, had a term which was filled with corruption scandals so the Social Democratic Party was expected to win the 2007 parliamentary elections with independent politician Ljubo Jurčić as the prime minister candidate.