Stipe Mestic - Croatian President

AIM Zagreb, 8 February, 2000

Stipe Mesic is the new president of Croatia.

In the second round of presidential elections, 65-year old Mesic won 56 per cent of the votes. His rival, Drazen Budisa, with about 43 per cent of the voters' support, is far behind. Although polls on the eve of the elections had announced a very close result, Mesic succeeded in maintaining about 13 per cent of the advantage from the first round. The ceremony of the inauguration is planned for 18 February on Mark's square where three years ago late Franjo Tudjman also pledged allegiance. A large number of high-ranking foreign guests are expected at the ceremony. In this way the international community wishes to stress its support to democratic changes which have taken place in Croatia.

In his first statement Mesic said that he wished to be the president of all the citizens of Croatia. He persisted in his announcement that he would support amendment of the Constitution which would reduce the jurisdiction of the president of the Republic and transform the semi-presidential into a parliamentary system. until then, he says, he will not use the power which resulted form Tudjman's extensive interpretation of constitutional norms. He announced that he would direct his first moves towards the international community. He especially stressed that he would have good Cupertino with the government: "I wish the same as prime minister Racan. We belong to the same political group", said Mesic.

Budisa was deeply affected by his failure, but he endured it like a good sportsman manifesting, as someone has said, the culture of defeat. He had already run for the president of Croatia, and said that he would not be a candidate again. After his party, the Croatian Social Liberal Party (HSLS) in coalition with Social Democrats (SDP) over a month ago had triumphed in parliamentary elections, it seemed that nobody could stop Budisa in conquering the post of the head of the state. In the final outcome he turned to be a big loser because he has not fulfilled his old wish and all the other posts had already been taken. He now claims that he will just be a deputy in the parliament. How that will operate remains to be seen.

It was especially noted that Ivica Racan did not appear in Budisa's election headquarters. He explained his absence by claiming that he was working on the platform of the government which had to be presented to the Assembly on Wednesday, but that is a feeble if not even a cynical pretext. The prime minister announced a forthcoming meeting Mesic and good Cupertino in implementation of reforms which are awaiting Croatia. Budisa was the joint candidate of HSLS and Racan's SDP and during the campaign Racan strongly supported him. He mockingly called Mesic " the smiling Tudjman" and his closest associates claimed that - should Budisa fail to become the head of the state - the new regime would not be able to carry out the promised changes. For the coalition of SDP and HSLS as the hard core of the new regime, Budisa's victory would have reinforced and facilitated the position. Mesic's victory will somewhat complicate the relations within the government of six parties if for no other reason than because the victorious two got only the post of the prime minister and the other four parties which together won half less votes managed to get two leading posts - that of the chairman of the Assembly and the head of the state. One can do nothing but hope that the new regime will manage to overcome all the challenges. Its leaders now claim that in presidential elections Croatia has confirmed its move towards democracy and completed the election cycle and created preconditions for harmonious operation of all the authorities.

Mesic's success is a specific accomplishment. A month ago in the beginning of election campaign, he was considered to be a total outsider and the support he enjoyed was measured with just a few humble per cents. But already in the first round, he took the lead and despite severe attacks he was exposed to in the past fortnight, he won with great style. Mesic is not unknown to the Croatian public: once, as one of the closest Tudjman's associates, he was also very popular. When he was the first prime minister of the rule of the Croat Democratic Community in 1990, he was called Tudjman's joker; while he was the last president of former Yugoslavia (Mesic is probably the only man who has managed to be the president of two states) he won support even outside Croatia. Six years ago he separated from HDZ and since then had no luck in politics. He wandered around the political scene, but became one of the most radical critics of Tudjman.

During the election campaign Mesic managed to impose himself as a personification of anti-Tudjmanism: his style, open, hearty and joking, he made the impression of just the opposite of everything the late president had stood for. But in politics his cut with the past is considered to be most radical. In the past few years Mesic was everywhere where it was necessary to resist the rule of HDZ - he joined non-governmental organisations in their attempts to prevent evictions, he went to the Hague and testified, he was present at the first great pro-democratic gathering in the "night of the candles" in Zagreb when one hundred thousand people demonstrated against shutting down of a Zagreb cult radio station, he participated in protest gatherings of anti-fascists and was even hit with a rod across his back by enraged "black-shirts".

The public rewarded his radical criticism of HDZ policy towards Bosnia & Herzegovina the most. Mesic claims that this had been the reason for his split with Tudjman, in any case he opposed division of Bosnia & Herzegovina, but also the influence of the Herzegovina lobby on economic and political developments in Croatia. Frustrated by Tudjman's policy which turned Croatia into a hostage of Herzeg-Bosnia, the public recognised Mesic as a guarantor that outflow of money towards Herzegovina would be discontinued. All the others, ministers of the new government inclusive, were much less unambiguous in this sense, they promised that "aid to the Croats in Bosnia & Herzegovina" would from now on be determined in the Assembly, while majority of the public believes that the problem is not in the fact that the flow of money is not transparent, but that Croatia, itself in a difficult situation, supports a para-creation in another state.

Mesic's opponents claimed that his thesis were populist and nationalistic, that he used the anti-Herzegovina disposition, there were even opinions that Herzegovinians had become "new Croatian Serbs". It is a fact that there are anti-Herzegovinian tensions in Croatia, but it is easy to provide quite sensible reasons for them. These tensions are the result of Tudjman's policy. Croatia is revolted by the fact that for years not only in the financial but also in the political sense, the Croats from Herzegovina were privileged. Such disposition is increased by the fact that the Croats from Bosnia & Herzegovina are enabled to influence the election decisions in Croatia which has become unbearable since electoral inclinations on this side of the border had started increasingly to differ from those on the other side. The proof of that is the fact that among B&H Croats Budisa won more than 90 per cent of the votes.

It was attempted to interrupt Mesic's rise by making certain documents public in which it was claimed that he used to cooperate with state security service. This campaign evidently originated in secret services themselves in which - again! - the Herzegovina lobby is very influential, and there are doubts that such dirty tricks were supported by Budisa's election headquarters. Croatia had become allergic to such extremely dubious documents because the former regime always had a supply of them in order to discredit its political opponents. Knowing all kinds of tricks played in Croatia with the inherited archives of former secret services, that documents used to be removed, stolen and inserted, nobody believes in the alleged secret documents. The dirty accusations by means fair and foul might have produced a counter effect, by the model of "the more libel and lies"

By the election of the president of the Republic, constitution of the new authorities in Croatia has been completed. Two months after Tudjman's funeral not only the entire ruling structure has been changed, but nobody even mentions the late president. As if he had never existed!

JELENA LOVRIC