Speaking in an interview with Croatian Radio on Monday, Mesic positively assessed potential candidates whom the media see as a prospective new SDP leader.
Regarding Zoran Milanovic, who has so far been the only one to explicitly announce his candidacy, Mesic portrayed him as "educated and acceptable".
Regarding the acting SDP President, Zeljka Antunovic, Mesic said that she had done a good job while serving as defence minister.
"If she was able to lead the defence sector, I suppose she can run other sectors as well," he explained.
He also said that he supported the SDP economic platform drawn by Ljubo Jurcic but this did not mean that he had been lobbying for him as a possible candidate for the post of Prime Minister.
Mesic said that "Jurcic may assume a post that creates economic policy but it will depend on the (parliamentary) election's victor to decide whether this can be premiership or a ministerial post."
Asked whether he believes that the incumbent Prime Minister Ivo Sanader deserves another term in office, Mesic said that Sanader has had made a turn in his viewpoints since the time he was in the opposition".
"Sanader got rid of some ballast ... while he was formulating the party's interests" and his current rhetoric satisfies political factors in Croatia and the international community, Mesic said.
"Whether he is able to remain in office, it is what voters will say," the president added, describing Sanader as a person who knows what Croatian interests are.
Commenting on controversies raised by the announcement that pop singer Marko Prekovic a.k.a. Thompson will hold a humanitarian concert in Sarajevo to mark the 10th anniversary of Pope John Paul II's visit to the Bosnian capital, Mesic said that "the (Catholic) Church should not associate this concert with the pope's visit to that country because that is not necessary."
He also suggested that it would be logical for Thompson to cancel the concert due to opposition in Bosnia-Herzegovina.