ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic met the leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ivica Racan, on Tuesday.
ZAGREB, March 2 (Hina) - Croatian President Stjepan Mesic met the
leader of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), Ivica Racan, on Tuesday.#L#
Commenting on his recent meetings with the leaders of political
parties, Mesic said that they were all interested in seeing Croatia
achieve its strategic goals, primarily adopt European standards and
join Euro-Atlantic associations.
"President Mesic and I cooperated intensively for four years. My
position has changed and I found it interesting to hold talks being no
longer in power," Racan said.
Commenting on his government's achievements in the process of
integration into the EU, Racan said that he and Mesic agreed that the
previous government had done a good job and he believed that
integration activities would continue to be successful.
The talks with President Mesic also tackled some current problems,
Racan said, but did not comment on details.
Asked whether it was true that he had stated that the SDP would
support Mesic in the upcoming presidential elections if Mesic did not
change his views, and whether Mesic had changed his views, Racan said
what he had stated was true and he had nothing to add to it.
"We did not discuss the elections or President Mesic's candidacy in
the upcoming elections, we did not want to spoil a good lunch with
that topic", he added.
Asked if he expected the SDP's support, Mesic said the public was
acquainted with his views and that he would not change them. "Many SDP
members voted for me, and whether they will vote again depends
primarily on whether I will run in the elections", the president
said.
Mesic dismissed claims that his meetings with party representatives
(with the Social Liberals on Monday and the Social Democrats today)
were part of preparations for the presidential elections.
The reporters also wanted to know what Mesic had talked about with
Prime Minister Ivo Sanader last night, considering the fact that the
talks were also attended by the military leadership and his military
advisors. Mesic said that Croatia had completed the largest part of
reorganisation of the military before the last parliamentary election.
The military has been depoliticised, it has been adjusted to NATO
standards for the most part and a few steps remain to be made to
adjust it fully to NATO standards. Most of the job has been done, and
we have discussed what remains to be done, Mesic said.
I did not discuss the situation in the security services with Prime
Minister Sanader, nor the sending of Croatian troops to Iraq, he
said.
Mesic was also asked to comment on a recent statement by Serbia and
Montenegro's interior minister who said that "Belgrade is full of
spies from Croatia who are destabilising the country".
"If I knew of any Croatian agent being in Serbia and Montenegro, I
would say so, but as far as I know, there are no such people (there)
and I think that this statement was intended for the Serbian public
and political scene. Croatia has no special interests in Serbia, we
want Serbia to be a democratic country, to draw closer to Europe and
abandon those who want to change borders again," Mesic said.
(Hina) rml sb