This triumph was marred by Budiša losing to Stjepan Mesić on the presidential elections held two weeks later. Budiša, who tried to woo followers of Franjo Tuđman during the second round, was embittered by this defeat and this led to his party turning increasingly right-wing and later squabbles with his government coalition partners. This resulted with him resigning from the post of president of HSLS on 12 July 2001 over dispute with SDP about whether to send Croatian generals to ICTY. Jozo Radoš was chosen to act instead of him.