Croatia Readies for New President's Inauguration

Croatia's newly elected President, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic, is finalising preparations for her inauguration on Sunday.

The candidate of the opposition centre-right Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, she won the second round of the elections in January against the incumbent, Ivo Josipovic, by a smallest margin ever - just 32,509 votes.

As required by the constitution, Grabar Kitarovic has signed out from HDZ membership, sending her written request to the party president, Tomislav Karamarko.

In her letter she thanked the HDZ for their support in her election campaign, pledging to battle for "the values that we all share: patriotism, protection of national interests and the struggle for a better life.

"With new Croatian unity we will achieve a better Croatia of which all citizens can be proud", she added.

High-ranking politicians from home and abroad as the media and members of the public are expected to cram into Zagreb's historic St Mark's Square for the ceremony.

Approximately 1,000 people will be present and the organization of the event will cost around 78,000 euro.

Attending will be presidents Borut Pahor of Slovenia, Andej Kiska of Slovakia, Janos Ader of Hungary, Gjorge Ivanov of Macedonia, Bujar Nishani of Albania, Atifete Jahjaga of Kosovo, Filip Vujanovic of Montenegro, and all three members of Bosnia and Herzegovina's presidency, Mladen Ivanic, Dragan Covic and Bakir Izetbegovic.

Bulgaria will be represented by Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva and the Czech Republic and Poland by the chairmen of their respective senates, Milan Stech and Bogdan Borusewicz.

Serbia's President, Tomislav Nikolic, will be conspicuous by his absence - a sign of the frosty relations between Serbia and Croatia.