President Milanović Participates in Istria County Day Celebration
The President of the Republic Zoran Milanović took part in the formal session held in Pazin on the occasion of Istria County Day at which he told Istrians to continue doing the fantastic job they have done so far. “It’s great to be here, people come here for enjoyment, but I don’t know if they see that people here work persistently, tediously and systematically. It is this kind of approach to work, to life and to the community that is the cornerstone of progress of the European west. Slowly, persistently, not through great discoveries and dramatic breakthroughs, continue in this way”, President Milanović remarked.
In his address the President of the Republic referred to the coronavirus situation. “We had both brains and some luck. We were well prepared. What will happen in the coming year? We will probably begin to recover and grow at certain rates. Two years will be required to reach the 2019 level and it will be good if that happens”, President Milanović said, adding that we have to face an economic decline, reconcile ourselves with it and get back to work.
“As Prime Minister I had the honour, the fortune and the satisfaction, as well as the challenge, since the people of Istria are demanding, to fulfill reasonable wishes, a part of Istria’s wishes. We began construction of a hospital, agglomeration of the water supply system. I am glad that the construction of the highway and the tunnel through Učka Mountain are nearing completion. And we must continue like that”, the President said.
Istria County Day is celebrated on the occasion of the Pazin Decisions from 1943 on the secession of Istria from Italy and unification with Croatia and Yugoslavia. President Milanović called these decisions “simply a cry of wishes and expectations of generations of our people, the Croats of Istria.” “We regularly keep silent about the fact that tens of thousands of Italians lived here in Istria, who did not see those years as anything positive for them. They did not see themselves in that country and they left that country. Many left voluntarily, but truly under pressure. Those are the facts that need to be repeated. Those are the truths. As well as the fact that Italy gained some territories where there were no Italians at all, as a result of that difficult and bloody war in which our victories, of our armies, took place under the (communist) red star,” the President said. He pointed out that today, rightly, there are many dilemmas concerning the red star. “I am fully aware and accept that it may be difficult for people to accept and that it gets on their nerves,” the President added.
“Many families in Croatia and Istria, Italian families, entire settlements were harmed by the arrival of the red star. That red star is a symbol that is slowly fading away, but it didn’t deserve to be trampled on. It has a reverse butterfly effect. It originated and was born as a butterfly in the Spanish Civil War. It lived for a while; however, in the end it began slowly, but more and more visibly, to turn into a caterpillar, only to eventually become one – and into a cocarde and everything else that we never wanted, hoped for or experienced. As a result, a large number of our people started to resent it,” said the President, adding that without the red star there would have been no freedom or Croatian victory in the war.
Prior to the formal session held on the occasion of Istria County Day, President Milanović laid a wreath and lit a candle at the Monument to the Victims of Fascism in the National Uprising Park.
PHOTO: Office of the President of the Republic of Croatia / Tomislav Bušljeta