PRESIDENT MUST TIP SCALES, HIS ROLE DEFINED BY CONSTITUTION - MESIC

ZAGREB, Jan 30 (Hina) - The winner of the first round of Croatia's presidential election, Stipe Mesic, on Sunday told Hina the charisma he evidently had was necessary for winning the February 7 run-off, but that later it would lose its importance. Nobody could understand the Mesic phenomenon, but its victory is pure logic, Mesic said. He believes Croatia's future president should "tip the scales". The new president's concrete activity has yet to be stipulated by the Constitution, he said, adding a president was needed in crisis situations in parliament, when it is necessary to "tilt the balance" and ensure that institutions continue functioning. Mesic announced he would "eliminate (counter-candidate Drazen Budisa) in the second round through my messages." Budisa's victory entails the "hypothetical possibility of monopoly," Mesic assessed. The new government, he said, in its core is the backbone of the ruling SDP/HSLS coalition, which supports Budisa at the presidential run-off. Croatia is at present plagued by problems which are too big to expect "elegant work" for the new government, he added. Mesic told Hina Budisa was interpreting him wrongly and acusing him of wanting to overthrow new Premier Ivica Racan's government. "I am not overthrowing Ivica Racan, but talking about a government which, if it fails to satisfy, must be changed. We must have mechanisms by which the government can fall, we don't have to immediately change the power ratio in parliament. The same winners can set up the new government, we don't have to immediately call elections. We are changing the Constitution, not Ivica Racan. Budisa understands nothing," said Mesic. "We have to change the Constitution because, if now we get a new monopoly, and have a bad government and no corrective factor, the government giving bad results will be defended at any cost," he pointed out. Asked if he believed the president of Budisa's headquarters, Zdravko Tomac, could be interpreted wrongly following his statement that Budisa must win so that the winning coalition's pre- electoral promises could be realised, Mesic said: "That statement was not wrongly interpreted in the media. If this is how they are saying they must win because others are dangerous, then it is a qustion of democratic centralism from the party in power which knows everything, the party which does not err. It is a matter that will absolutely have to be taken into account in the future." Mesic resolutely rejected speculation in the media which say that if elected president, he could exert the powers the current Constitution grants the president of the republic. For him, these are simply "insinuations." "I left (late Croatian President, Franjo) Tudjman because I wanted these changes. And before I left Tudjman, today's winners were an Opposition every authority could desire, one which could do absolutely nothing. They could only walk around and drink coffees in parliament. Only when I arrived could they do something and, instead of being grateful for now coming into power, they are afraid of me," said Mesic. Explaing his success in the first round of the presidential election, Mesic said his populist campaign recalled the euphoria which the formerly ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) enjoyed in 1990. "Voters are waking from sleep," he said, adding they realised that what he is saying today is what he was saying in the past, and that time showed he had always been right in political assessments. Commenting the media's constant voicing of suspicions regarding the financing of his campaign, Mesic said he would submit accounts for both the first and the second electoral round. He said he was financed by his friends. Asked about the need that Croatia be returned to the right, Mesic asserted he would "leave it in the centre." (hina) ha