President Milanović at 150th Anniversary Ceremony of the First Assembly of Croats from Istria and the Kvarner Islands
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović attended the 150th anniversary ceremony of the First Assembly of Croats from Istria and the Kvarner Islands at St. Michael’s Chapel in Matulji.
In his address, President Milanović thanked the organizers for asking him to accept patronage of the ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of the First Assembly of Croats from Istria and the Kvarner Islands. “Something big happened here one-hundred years ago. Fifty years ago, Savka Dabčević-Kučar spoke here. And on this day, by pure destiny, I am the Croatian President and I have the honour and good fortune to address you here in Kastav,” he said.
The President recalled that his knowledge of Kastav primarily comes from texts written by the academic Petar Strčić, whom he was lucky enough to meet. “Now I have refreshed my memory a bit, but this is significant enough so that at one point in my life, work and career 12 years ago, it prompted me to embark on a political path from Kastav, a parliamentary, party path at the time with my partners and friends. The ‘Kukuriku Coalition’ originated from that and the coalition was supposed to be called ‘Kastavska’. We were photographed in front of the čitalnica [reading room] and the message was: ‘Let’s agree’,” the President recalled, adding that on that day in July 2009 Kastav was deliberately chosen.
“The plight of the Croatian people and the struggle for status lasted a very long time and was not easy – nobody’s plight is easy – but it was not certain either, and that is an attribute of great journeys and great travellers who dare to embark on such a path,” the President said, recalling that the path of his ancestors in Dalmatia was similar but not the same. He commented on the decades-long struggle between the unitarians and the autonomists, and on the state of literacy of Croats at the time, due to which reading rooms played an important role.
“But in the end, determination, robustness and awareness, which steadily grew, prevailed. It started from that čitalnica and from the awareness of the people in regard to who they are, what they are, where they belong and that this Croatian name is in fact a name that is derived from the Croatian traditional state right. The Croatian right has existed for centuries, but there is also the natural right of peoples and communities to come together, to have their own name, their own culture, their own language and their own opinion. Here we are finally ‘ourselves, on our own land’ and no matter how many times that phrase has been repeated, it should be repeated constantly and given new life,” said the Croatian President.
“It was only when we managed to come together in our space, and it wasn’t that long ago; that we could, like any large or small family, really start working towards our interests. And that is the key to this story: Croatian interests in the European Union. In my opinion, the interest of Kastav and Matulji, as the wealthier Croatian local self-government units, is only to extract as much money as possible via EU funds, and to leave ideology and warm-hearted stories aside because they usually do not mean much. The EU is a good thing, as much as we manage to get in return. For me, this is the first lesson in a new Croatian reading room,” President Milanović concluded in his address.
Apart from President Milanović, the 150th anniversary ceremony of the First Assembly of Croats from Istria and the Kvarner Islands was attended by Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Prefect Zlatko Komadina, Kastav Mayor Matej Mostarac and Municipality of Matulji Head Mario Ćirković.
Accompanied by Kastav Mayor Matej Mostarac and the Director of the Maritime and History Museum of the Croatian Coast in Rijeka Nikolina Radić Štivić, the Croatian President visited an exhibition in the Volta (arched town doorway) opened on the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the First Assembly of Croats from Istria and the Kvarner Islands.
Before visiting Matulji and Kastav, President Milanović was in the town of Crikvenica, where in the company of Crikvenica Mayor Damir Rukavina, the Director of the County Port Authority in Crikvenica Mario Kružić and the Chair of the Governing Board of the County Port Authority Davorka Vukelić he toured the construction site for the upgrade of the Port of Crikvenica, a public port of major significance for the county.
Special Adviser to the President of the Republic for the Economy Velibor Mačkić was with President Milanović in Crikvenica. In Matulji and Kastav, the President was joined by his Adviser for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Ana Marija Katić