The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY) was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Slovenia. Serbia, in addition, included two autonomous provinces of Vojvodina and Kosovo and Metohija.

Initially siding with the Eastern bloc under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito at the beginning of the Cold War, Yugoslavia pursued a policy of neutrality after the Tito-Stalin split of 1948, and became one of the founding members of the Non-Aligned Movement. After the death of Tito in 1980, rising ethnic nationalism in the late 1980s led to dissidence among the multiple ethnicities within the constituent republics, followed by collapse of inter-republic talks on transformation of the country and recognition of their independence by some European states in 1991. This led to the country collapsing on ethnic lines, followed by wars fraught with ethnic discrimination and human rights violations.

Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić (pronounced [stjêpaːn měːsitɕ]; born 24 December 1934) is a Croatian politician who served as the second President of Croatia, 2000 to 2010. Before his ten-year presidential term between 2000 and 2010 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).