President Milanović meets with Croats in Slovakia: Preserve tradition and language

“Preserve tradition and language, language is important. What makes us a nation is a common language, a common standard. Here is a treasure trove of Croatian history that has been preserved and hold on to it, learn the standard Croatian language because it is the hallmark of the nation and how we communicate with each other”, the President of the Republic Zoran Milanović told representatives of the Croatian community in the Slovak Republic this evening.

President Milanović, on a two-day official visit to the Slovak Republic on the invitation of the President of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini, met with representatives of the Croatian national minority in Bratislava this evening, namely with the heads of Croatian cultural societies and associations in Slovakia, and eminent Croats who live and work in that country.

“Croats who moved to Slovakia from Dalmatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Pokuplje and parts south of Zagreb, from which the vast majority of you came, and this people integrated and assimilated to a great extent among the Slovaks here, and you cannot help but see that this mixture is as significant as anywhere else, as with any other people or nation“, President Milanović stated.

As meetings with the Slovak President and Prime Minister are scheduled for Tuesday, the second day of the President of the Republic’s official visit to the Slovak Republic, President Milanović said that they are “like-minded people with whom I communicate”. “That does not mean that everyone in Europe thinks the same today, but there is a tendency to persuade people to think the same. We have already seen this before and that is why Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union collapsed. I hope that this will not be the case with the European Union. Not everyone can think the same and not everyone can behave the same way, but common democratic values, all interpretations, I think I have not sinned against that teaching”, President Milanović said in concluding his address.

According to data of the Croatian Cultural Association there are between three and four thousand Croats living in Slovakia, mostly in four districts of Bratislava. The Croatian national minority in Slovakia is recognized as a minority, and the Croatian language is one of eight indigenous minority languages.

PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Dario Andrišek