President Apologises to Slovenia in Slovene Suit

“Maybe it was not the best chosen statement, but I did not mean anything bad” apologised the Croatian president Stjepan Mesic to the Slovenians in the Croatian television show “Sunday at Two”, for his statement that Slovenians would have watched the sea from a distance of 20 kilometres had it not been for Croatian Partizans. President Mesic proved his support for making amends and advocating that the conflict between Croatia and Slovenia be solved as soon as possible, without the boycott of Slovenian products or holidays to the Croatian coast, by opening his suit jacket and showing that he was wearing a (Slovenian) Mura suit.

Mesic said that his statement was taken out of context in which he wanted to illustrate that Slovenians and Croatians have always cooperated well throughout history: whilst Slovenian brigades had the job of driving German forces towards the Austrian border, Croatian forces liberated the territory towards Trieste.

“We cooperated later in Yugoslavia so that the federation came together, and during the break-up of the former state.

When Slovenia entered the European Union, we supported them with all strength, because we saw that the door was opening to us. We have always cooperated, all of the open issues between us are solvable, but now both sides have entrenched themselves. This was done by the politicians. I am an absolute optimist that a solution will be reached. Now before all we need to be responsible before our, the European and world public, and a compromise should be reached for” said Mesic. He once again guaranteed that any decision made by the International Court of Justice about solving the border dispute will be accepted by Croatia without appeals.

Besides wearing a Mura suit, he said that numerous Slovenians are his friends, and Mesic gave some more proof of his good relations with his neighbours.

“I was in love with a Slovenian a few times. It did not end happily, but I was happily in love” said the president.