"If I become president, the Croatian people will take on a new life and will walk with their heads high. There will be order and work, and we will square accounts with Croatian Pharisees and Judases," Cesic told an ecstatic crowd in a packed movie theatre.
"There can be no room for those who betrayed Croatia and handed out transcripts," Cesic said and added: "We will be left without Croatia if the current president Stjepan Mesic remains in office for another term."
He dedicated most of his speech to fugitive general Ante Gotovina, who is wanted by the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
"May God give him the strength to hold out, and those who are persecuting him will be ashamed in the end," Cesic said, adding that he was not afraid of threats and that he would continue helping the runaway general.
A documentary film on recent Croatian history, containing sequences from the 1991-1995 Croatian war of independence, was shown at the rally, with the crowd booing and shouting abuse whenever Mesic and Prime Minister Ivo Sanader appeared in the film. Parts of the film showing the first Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, were greeted with a long applause.
Before the rally, Cesic presented a new 4mx3m poster featuring Gotovina at the site from which a similar poster had recently been removed.