Education
Graduated from the Law Faculty at the University of Zagreb.
Graduated from the Law Faculty at the University of Zagreb.
Zagreb Mesić worked in Orahovica, served in the Army, and after the discharge from the army became a municipal judge, joined the League of Communists of Croatia (the Communist Party). In 1966 he was elected to municipal council and next year he became the mayor of Orahovica.
Stjepan Mesić began his political career as the deputy of the Council (parliament) of the Socialist Republic of Croatia. In 1968-1971 he was the President of the Assembly of the community Orahovica.
Mesić was a deputy in the Croatian Parliament in the 1960s, and was then absent from politics until 1990 when he joined the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) of Franjo Tuđman and became its Secretary ant then the Chairman of the executive committee of the party. HDZ got accession to the power through multi-party elections, which were the first since World War II. Stjepan Mesić became the first Prime Minister of Croatia (1990), but soon resigned to take a post in the Yugoslav Federal Presidency, where he served first as Vice-President (according to the constitution vice-presidents of forming Republics were appointed presidents by turns at that time). When Mesić's turn came to automatically become the President, the Serbian spokesman Member Borisav Jović demanded that an election be held. Under pressure from the international community, Mesić was eventually appointed and was the head of the Yugoslav Federal Presidency from July 1to December 4, 1991. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Mesić served as Speaker of the Croatian Parliament in 1992. However two years later, after he had left the HDZ, he was deprived of this post. With several other members of parliament, he formed a new party - the Croatian Independent Democrats (HND).
In 1997 he and a part of the HND membership merged into the liberal Croatian People's Party (HNS). Mesić became its vice-president.
After Franjo Tuđman had died in December 1999 Mesić was elected the head of the state in February 2000. He announced that he would be the president of all Croats and stepped down from membership in the HNS.
He was re-elected in January 2005 for a second five-year term. Mesić had always topped the polls for the most popular politician in Croatia during his two terms.
Despite the wide smiles and openness of the second president of the Republic of Croatia, the new head of state is capable of power decisions.
Mesić fired seven Croatian generals, who twice published open letters addressed to the people, in which they accused the government of the criminalization of civil war and disdain for the Army. In his opinion, officers on active service don’t have the right for such an action without the consent of the Commander in Chief. Opposition regarded this decision as a dangerous precedent.
Croatia's joining the NATO and The European Union is the priority for Mesić in foreign policy. In May 1997 he testified at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia on the activities of the Croatian police in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina and he gave the Tribunal Croatian generals accused of war crimes. This decision caused the resignation of four members of the Croatian government and nervousness among the people, because after the disintegration of Yugoslavia, many people considered the participants of war to be the heroes. However Mesić came to a firm decision to cooperate with Europe, and not to confront.
When he came to power, he limited presidential powers, laying special stress on the representative function, and all the current work shifted to the government, for what he was repeatedly criticized.