Shortly after the bells of St Mark's Church chimed marking noon and a choir sang the Croatian national anthem, "Our Beautiful Homeland", Mesic was sworn in.
In his inaugural address, president Mesic told the world he would continue to ensure that Croatia be 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 labour, a Croatia where skills and qualifications will be valued rather than stratagem and deception," Mesic 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 frustrate our path to the future. However, let us not pass over the past in silence. And, perhaps more important - lest 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 president-citizen," Mesic said.
To Croatia's neighbours Mesic 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 EU.
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 territorial integrity of the Republic of Croatia.
Mesic 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".
Before the oath, the president of the Constitutional Court, Petar Klaric, said the presidential elections on January 2 and 16 were held in line with the Law and that Mesic won.
After the inauguration, the ceremony continued in the Dverce City Pallace where Mesic was receiving representatives of the legislative and executive and judicial authorities, his counterparts from other countries, representatives of foreign delegations and organisations.