Independence Day is a national holiday when Croatia remembers October 8, 1991 when its parliament unanimously passed a resolution severing all legal and constitutional ties with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
Parliament Speaker Josip Leko said in his address that Croatia had made great progress on the political front over the last 23 years, adding that preservation of the democratic standards achieved to date and their further improvement were a lasting process. "We must never tire of it," he stressed.
Leko wished all citizens "a happy future in the European and democratic Croatia."
The session was also attended by political and judicial officials, religious dignitaries, and prominent public figures.