Mesic said that Josip Broz Tito was part of Croatian history and that this should not be concealed.
Tito led the country out of the Second World War and arranged (Yugoslavia) into a federation consisting of federal republics. Croatia was a federal republic and thanks to the 1974 Constitution, Yugoslavia was organised as a confederation. It was the 1974 Constitution, rather than the NDH (the 1941-1945 Nazi-styled Independent State of Croatia led by Ustasha), that served as a basis for the present-day Croatia, Mesic said.
Mesic said he was surprised to see the destruction of a monument to the man (Tito) "who should be given credit for the fact that we have our state today", while in the city of Zadar "some are marching in Ustasha uniforms, the uniforms of those who had sold Zadar".
The Kumrovec incident is also an attack on Croatian culture because the monument to Tito was designed by the greatest Croatian sculptor, August Augustincic, Mesic said.