Less than a month after President Tuđman passed away, a centre-left coalition of social democrats (SDP) and social-liberals (HSLS) won the general election. For the first time since independence, HDZ (centre-right) founded by Tuđman was in opposition. The SDP leader Ivica Račan was to be named Prime Minister. He intensified Croatia's engagement on its path towards European integration.
The leader of the People's party (HNS, centre-left), Stjepan Mesić, was elected president in the second round of the presidential elections. He drew 56.0% of the vote against the social-liberal Dražen Budiša, student leader of the 1971 "Croatian Spring". As Tuđman's former close collaborator, in 1990, Stjepan Mesić was the Prime Minister in the first Croatian non-communist government, then the president of the Parliament, before breaking with Tuđman in 1994 to found a new party, the Croatian Independent Democrats (HND), and to later join HNS in 1997. In 2005 he was re-elected for another five-year term of office.