Stjepan Mesic

President of the Republic of Croatia

(Official website of the Croatian President, BBC)

Stjepan Mesic [often called Stipe Mesic] was elected president of the Republic of Croatia on 7 February 2000, succeeding Franjo Tudjman, whose death prompted the elections. Mesic, a pro-European and pro-NATO centrist vowed to be the opposite of his autocratic and nationalist predecessor.

Mesic was born on 24 December 1934 in the town of Orahovica. He graduated with a law degree from the University of Zagreb in 1961, where he was a prominent student leader.

He started his political career as a member of parliament of the Socialist Republic of Croatia. In the early 1970s, when Josip Broz Tito was in power in Yugoslavia, Mesic was imprisoned for one year for promoting Croatian nationalism.

In the early 1990s, Mesic joined Franjo Tudjman's Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and soon became its secretary, and later chairman, of the HDZ Executive Committee.

In the first multi-party elections in 1990, HDZ came to power and Mesic was appointed the first prime minister of Croatia. By decision of the Croatian parliament, he became the republic's member of the Yugoslav presidency until the federation's break-up in December 1991. Mesic will go down in history as the last president of the former Yugoslavia.

In 1992, Mesic was elected speaker of the independent Croatia's parliament. He was removed from the post in 1994 after leaving the HDZ to form a new party -- the Independent Croatian Democrats (HND). The step reflected Mesic's discontent with the HDZ and Tudjman's undemocratic manner, particularly his policy of interference in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In 1997, HND split and Mesic joined the centrist Croatian People's Party. He became the party's executive vice-president, but left the party after being elected, saying he wanted to be president of all Croats.