After being Speaker of Parliament, Prime Minister and President (of two countries!), Stjepan Mesić might not be finished with his political career.
After the parliamentary majority on 18 May changed a law and abolished the Office of Former President Stjepan Mesić, president of Croatian Party of Pensioners (HSU) Silvano Hrelja met with Mesić and suggested to him to run for Mayor of Zagreb at next years’ local elections, reports Večernji List on June 1, 2016.
“We spoke with President Mesić and we would like him to be HSU’s candidate for Mayor of Zagreb, because we believe that he is a person who has a lot of political experience, and in these volatile and uncertain times that is what is needed for Zagreb and Croatia”, said HSU representatives.
Mesić (81) was reportedly pleasantly surprised with the HSU initiative, which is especially interesting for him since he has already done all the other most important jobs in government – he was President of Croatia (2000-2010), the last President of Yugoslavia (1991), Croatian Prime Minister (1990) and Speaker of Croatian Parliament (1992-1994).
“I would not immediately reject this possibility. I will meet once again with HSU president Hrelja, but I am not sure that I will accept the offer because I believe that I will keep working in my office as a former president. I am still receiving invitations from world leaders and I have enough political capital to promote Croatian political and economic interests in the world. My first option is still the office of former president”, said Mesić.
He does not want to accept the decision of parliamentary majority, saying that the decision is contrary to the Constitution. “I will fight against this decision with all legal means. I will send a proposal to the Constitutional Court to review the constitutionality of the law and I will ask the Constitutional Court to order a temporary suspension of the application of the law until they make the final decision. The proposal has already been written. Due to violations of the Constitution, because this is a law written just for me, I will also appeal to a European court”, said Mesić.
“We believe this is the right time for Mesić to return from political retirement. He can do much more by returning to politics and HSU wants to participate in this project because we believe that would be good for citizens. Stjepan Mesić symbolizes prosperous and stable times, he participated in the creation of the modern Croatian state, he was a two-term president, and we believe that citizens have not forgotten that and would appreciate his knowledge and experience”, said HSU.
