well as the prominent Bosniak leader Sulejman Tihić, and visited the site of the Sijekovac killings to pay respect to the victims. The site and the visit provoked some controversy in the Croatian public, with allegations of impropriety levelled against President Josipović and the authorities of Republika Srpska for misattributing some of the casualties. During a visit to Israel in February 2012, Josipović apologized for atrocities committed against Jews by the Croatian Ustaše regime during the 1940s. Josipović's apology was accompanied by criticism in Croatia because his predecessor Stjepan Mesić had already apologized earlier for the crimes. Josipović also said that "he is the son of Tito's partisan". During a speech at the commemoration for the victims of the Jasenovac concentration camp in May 2014, Josipović described the crimes that happened in Jasenovac as genocide. During his speech, Josipović stressed that the vast majority of Croatian people fought against Ustasha policies during the Second World War by participating in an anti-fascist movement, urging everyone not to forget that "exclusivity, hatred and intolerance and the evils of fascism and other totalitarian ideologies" are still present in today's societies so that WWII crimes would never repeat, stating that "unity and determination are the only true power against the new Auschwitz, Jasenovac, Ovčara and Srebrenica". Standing in opinion polls In the year 2010, President Josipović had on average maintained a very high 81% approval rating (according to Ipsos), surpassing the former president Mesić. With ratings reaching as high as 84% in May, August and December in 2010 and 2011, Josipović was ranked as the most popular Croatian politician in the past 20 years (with the possible exception of Franjo Tuđman), since Croatia's secession from Yugoslavia. However, while he remains the most popular Croatian active politician, in the first half of the 2012 his popularity suffered a decline: from ratings of over 80% at the end of 2011 and 84% in February 2012, to 74.2% in March 2012 and 68.8% in April 2012. Also, according to the polls for the 2015 presidential elections, he had a lead of about 10% against the winner of the elections, raising doubts about the methodology of the surveys. Presidential election 2015 President Josipović announced plans to seek re-election in the 2014 presidential election, with his electoral program focusing on amendments to the constitution and the decentralization of Croatia. The first round of elections took place on 28 December