Stjepan Mesic
Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić (pronounced [stjêpaːn stǐːpe měːsit ɕ]; born 24 December 1934) is a Croatian politician who served as the second President of Croatia from 2000 to 2010. Before his ten-year presidential term, he held the posts of Speaker of the Croatian Parliament (1992–1994), Prime Minister of Croatia (1990), the last President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia (1991), Secretary General of the Non-Aligned Movement (1991), a judge in Našice and mayor of his home town of Orahovica. Mesić was a deputy in the Croatian Parliament in the 1960s, and was then absent from politics until 1990 when he joined the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ), and was named Prime Minister after HDZ won the elections. He was appointed to serve as SR Croatia's member of the Yugoslav Federal Presidency where he served first as Vice President and then in 1991 as the last President of Yugoslavia before Yugoslavia dissolved. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, Mesić served as Speaker of the Croatian Parliament from 1992 to 1994, when he left HDZ. With several other members of parliament, he formed a new party called Croatian Independent Democrats (HND). In 1997 the majority of HND members, including Mesić, merged into the Croatian People's Party (HNS). After Franjo Tuđman had died in December 1999 Mesić won the elections to become the next President of the Republic of Croatia in February 2000. He was re-elected in January 2005 for a second five-year term. Mesić had always topped the polls for the most popular politician in Croatia during his two terms.