Croatian President Stjepan Mesić Sworn In For Second Five-Year Term

 Croatian President Stjepan Mesić takes the oath of office during the inauguration ceremony

Zagreb, Croatia, February 18 – Croatian President Stjepan Mesić formally began his second five-year term in office on February 18, 2005 after taking an oath before Constitutional Court judges at a ceremony in Zagreb's medieval St. Mark's Square.

The bells of St. Mark’s church chimed and a choir sang the Croatian national anthem, “Our Beautiful homeland”, before the swearing-in ceremony.

“A Democratic Croatia, a state in which all citizens have equal rights, was and remains my first and paramount objective,” President Mesić said in his inaugural address. He continued  by saying that he would continue to ensure that Croatia remains an open state, readily receiving and giving, focused on joining Euro-Atlantic associations and deeply committed to the cause of peace and security on a global scale.

“I dream of Croatia where people will have a good standard of living, where people will live from their work and from the fruits of their labor, a Croatia where skills and qualifications will be valued rather than stratagem and deception,” Mesić said and told the citizens they could make this dream come true together.

“I do not wish to divide but to join. I do not wish to rule but rather to serve – all of you and our homeland,” the Croatian President said.

“Let us not allow our past to frustrate our path to the future. However, let us not pass over the past in silence. And, perhaps more important – let us not falsify the past, neither that of yesterday nor the recent one. Every fight against the truth is a priori doomed to fail. And everyone who does not want to face up to the truth about himself and his own past – is a coward. Let us summon our courage to face up to the truth, the truth about ourselves and then only about others,” the president said in his address.

He pledged to the citizens that he would always speak about matters that interest and trouble them, but also about all things that citizens approve of. “I shall be in the full and exact sense of the word the representative of citizens, I shall be – like I have been so far, too – a citizen-president,” Mesić said.

To Croatia's neighbors Mesić pledged cooperation in the region and good and normal relations. He said Croatia would share its experience in the process of drawing closer to the European Union.

Taking his oath, the re-elected president pledged he would advocate the respect for the Constitution and the rule of law, and protect the independence, existence and terrotorial integrity of the Republic of Croatia.

President Mesić ended his oath, which he made in front of the highest Croatian state officials, about ten heads of state and foreign delegations, by saying: “So help me God”.

After the inauguration, the ceremony continued in the Dverce city Palace where President Mesić was receiving representatives of the foreign delegations, and his counterparts from other countries.