Sanader's European Comfort

Stipe Mesić (Stipe Mesic) tries to use as much momentum from his victory as possible. Less than 24 hours after polls closed he asked not only for defence minister Berislav Rončević (Berislav Roncevic) to resign but also for Croatian electoral laws to be changed in order to prevent any further meddling of Herzegovinian "diaspora" into Croatian elections.

Thankfully for Sanader, only a day after his great defeat he managed to score something that the media would hail as major victory. He flew to Brussels to talk with EU officials about accession negotiations. EU commissioner Baroso said that he hoped that Croatia would become part of EU during his mandate or, in other words, "before the end of a decade". Year 2012, which was floated as the alternative date for Croatian accession, seems to be off the table. Croatia will, in most likelihood, enter EU in 2007 or 2008.