Funeral attended by government and city officials was held on Wednesday for the long-serving Mayor of Zagreb, Milan Bandic, who had died on Sunday from a heart attack, aged 65.

Addressing the funeral ceremony at Mirogoj Cemetery, Acting Mayor Jelena Pavicic-Vukicevic described Bandic as a “person with so much vital energy and love for all, a person who did so much for this city, becoming part of its identity and dreaming big dreams about its future. He was unique and inimitable.”

She said that Bandic had left an indelible mark on the present and future of Zagreb.

“We are saying goodbye to a great man, a true patriot and a political visionary, one of the greatest mayors of Zagreb who dedicated his life to public service, most of all to ordinary people. We are saying goodbye to a humanist and a fighter for policies devoid of hypocrisy and ideology, for equal rights and opportunity for all. We are saying goodbye to a political leader and the longest-serving mayor of Zagreb who changed the cityscape by turning it into a true European metropolis,” Pavicic-Vukicevic told the gathering.

She will run the city until local elections in May. She has said she will not run for Mayor in the election.

Along with Bandic’s family, friends, and close associates, the funeral was attended by senior state officials – Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, Veterans Minister Tomo Medved, and Foreign Minister Gordan Grlic-Radman.

The mayors of Skopje, Ljubljana, Belgrade, Sarajevo, and Split also arrived to bid farewell to the late mayor. They signed a book of condolence in City Hall.