In response to reporters' questions to comment announcements by some HAZU members that they will not come to hear his speech, Mesic said "Why does somebody have to listen to me? Do you think that I would listen to some of them?", and added in an ironic comment that "this is the mutual love".
Asked by reporters who covered his visit to the Zagreb branch of the Napredak cultural society on Thursday, to comment on a scandal in the Foreign Ministry involving some from the Croatian consulate in Los Angeles who seem to have been caught by U.S. policemen with drugs, Mesic said that he belatedly learned of it.
However, now all necessary mechanisms have been initiated so as to establish the real state of affairs, Mesic said explaining that it was not an employee from the Croatian consulate but her husband who was caught.
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader yesterday declined to comment on the scandal until he received all necessary documents on the affair.
The media have reported that in 2005, the U.S. police caught Bernard Barisic possessing illegal drugs in a car with Croatian diplomatic licence in Los Angeles.
Barisic is the husband of Bozica Barisic. an employee in the consulate.
The Croatian Foreign Ministry has recently stated that Mrs. Barisic will be withdrawn from the post as she failed to inform Zagreb of the case on time.