Mesic said that he would not run his election campaign in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and assessed that European-oriented Croats and other citizens holding dual Bosnian and Croatian citizenship might vote for him in the second round of the presidential election in Croatia on January 16.
"I think that Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina are not our diaspora. They are Croats, true Croats, but they are also citizens of Bosnia-Herzegovina. They must seek their happiness and pleasure in Bosnia-Herzegovina, and we must help the Croats in Bosnia-Herzegovina, as a constituent element, to have equal status with the two other ethnic groups," Mesic said in response to the question about Zagreb's attitude towards the Bosnian Croats and their participation in the presidential election in Croatia.
Mesic criticised the HDZ-led government in Croatia for allocating a large amount of money from the Croatian national budget for Bosnian Croats in order to attract their votes.