President Milanović at Antifascist Struggle Day in Split: No Progress without Harmony among Croatian People
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović took part in a celebration held on the occasion of Antifascist Struggle Day, which was held in front of the Croatian National Theatre in Split, and included a concert performed by the Croatian Navy orchestra.
“I came here on account of my grandfather and his brother, my grandmother and her brothers who didn’t go to war as antifascists, since they didn’t even know what that meant. My grandmother would say ‘he couldn’t endure it’. This means that it was so horrible for the ordinary man, Dalmatian peasant after all they’ve been through in the war, it must have been a huge human calamity”, President Milanović said in his address.
He named those killed in the First Split Detachment comprising young communists from Split, saying that from today’s perspective of a luxurious and comfortable life, and the need to satisfy as soon as possible every yearning and wish is difficult to comprehend. “We do not have people like that today. They were the spark that lit the uprising, the people’s uprising. They weren’t learned people, they weren’t people of dialectical materialism, some of them later became communists. I know that this day, these days, this holiday bothers some people in Croatia, I know that there was injustice, murder, lack of reason, because every revolution is rough, raw, unjust and quite often, if it doesn’t eat them, it harms its children but that was the price they had to pay,” the President noted.
President Milanović said that fifty years later some other brave people, Croatian fighters for freedom in the Homeland War, were prepared to courageously enter into battle, risking their lives. “Eighty years later Croatia is nevertheless good, whatever we think about ourselves, we’re not only good at playing football, we’re good in other reasonable things. This gathering here today, peaceful, civilized, civic, leftist, as well as traditionally Dalmatian, is an indicator that this is a normal and peaceful society that needs only a little to agree on some matters”, the President said. He said that without that harmony among Croatian people, there can be no progress. “We are few and only with joint efforts, as worn out as it may sound but it’s worth repeating, we can move on and progress”.
In announcing that he will attend the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration in Brezovica, President Milanović said: “Tomorrow I’m going to Brezovica where the first antifascist uprising took place, but what mother Dalmatia has given in the struggle for Croatian freedom, for far-reaching goals, nobody did. All the victims, everything these people had to live through, experience, hold their heads up high, experience through future disappointments in those and other systems in order to be able to live in their state today. Our Croatian man was not a deep philosopher, he couldn’t endure it, don’t lead our man into temptation!”, President Milanović concluded.
Addressing the gathering at the Antifascist Struggle Day commemoration besides President Milanović was the president of the Homeland War Veterans Association and VeDRA antifascists Ranko Britvić and the Mayor of the City of Split Ivica Puljak.
The Antifascist Struggle Day in Split was organized by the City of Split and Split-Dalmatia County as well as the Joint Associations of Antifascist Fighters and Antifascists of Split-Dalmatia County ZUABA, the Association of Antifascists and Antifascist Fighters of the City of Split UAAB and the Homeland War Veterans Association and Antifascists.
Attending the Antifascist Struggle Day celebration in Split with President Milanović was the Head of Office of the President Orsat Miljenić and the Adviser to the President for Human Rights and Civil Society Melita Mulić.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek