He was speaking to the press after taking part in a forum on the prospects of Southeast European countries on the way to the European Union which the German Bertelsmann foundation organised in Zagreb.
Asked to comment on the establishment of a monoethnic local government coalition in Knin, the president said that all parties founded in accordance with Croatian laws were Croatian parties and that they reached agreements based on affinity.
"I would exclude agreeing on the ethnic key basis. We don't need ethnic keys because we closed our ethnic issue a long time ago."
Mesic said one must not allow the occurrence of interethnic conflicts. "No project based on ethnicity can succeed," he said, adding this also referred to the eastern town of Vuovar.
He was asked to comment on the pulling down of the Wall of Pain in downtown Zagreb, given that it was being done without the knowledge of war veterans' associations, which strongly object to the demolition.
"Once again I will say something for which some will criticise me. I think that wall can't remain in the street indefinitely and that a permanent solution must be found for it."
"There's a name on every brick in that wall and during the (1990s) war it had its function because its message was that the war should be stopped, but it fulfilled its role," said the president.
He suggested that the bricks with the names of people who "defended Croatia" should be built into a monument to the victims of the war, on the model of the US Holocaust monument so that each victim could be remembered every day but in a more appropriate way.