"They have to show some muscle. When we had the (border) problem on the Mura (river), there was some exaggeration as well. The Slovenes brought the special police and I told them that if it happened again, we would bring voluntary firefighters and we would spray them. They never showed up after that," Mesic told the press after receiving members of the public in his office as usual on weekends.
The president also commented on a scandal involving drug smuggling by diplomatic post at the Croatian Consulate in Los Angeles, which came to light after two years.
Mesic said he expected a report next week and that a just and law-based decision would be made after the facts were established.
"It would have been logical if I had been informed on time," he said, adding that Foreign Minister Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic had told him he would have all the information next week.
Asked if he would invite Croatian Ambassador to the US Neven Jurica to come to Zagreb over this case, Mesic said this would depend on the facts. "If the facts are such that someone has to draw the consequences, he will draw them, regardless of the concerned party."
Answering the question if the Foreign Ministry might have kept him in the dark about the case, Mesic said he would not immediately conclude that the Ministry was doing something behind his back. "But evidently, this is something that happened in the past, a combination of circumstances. I am not justifying anyone nor would I like to accuse anyone before we establish the facts. Then we will make a decision that is just and law-based."
The press also asked for a comment on a statement the state secretary at the Foreign Ministry, Zeljko Kupresak, made on state television yesterday to the effect that Mesic had appointed to a diplomatic post someone involved in a major drug smuggling operation by diplomatic mail.
Mesic said he signed appointments at the ministry's proposal if he had no objections.
"If I were to know that someone whose appointment I was signing had done something that was not in keeping with his job, of course I would react," he said, pointing out, however, that only one side in this story had been heard.
He added that this was why the current ambassador to Turkey, Gordan Bakota, who at that time was the state secretary at the Foreign Ministry, would make a statement about this "as well as those two from Los Angeles who have been mentioned. Procedure will be carried out and there is no democracy without procedure".