Zagreb’s New Franjo Tuđman Statue Desecrated with Hammer and Sickle

Graffiti of a hammer and sickle, a proletarian solidarity symbol which primarily symbolised the unity of the peasants and the workers during the 1917 revolution and eventually became closely associated with Communism, has appeared on the newly placed Zagreb statue of independent Croatia’s first president, Dr. Franjo Tuđman.

As Vecernji list (view photos here) writes on the 6th of January, 2019, the controversial hammer and sickle graffiti was sprayed by as yet unknown vandals on the new Zagreb statue to the Independent Republic of Croatia’s very first president some time during Saturday night.

To briefly recall, Zagreb’s new monument dedicated to Dr. Franjo Tuđman was officially unveiled on the 19th anniversary of the death of the first Croatian president. Croatian politicians, Homeland War defenders from all corners of the country, and people from across Croatia came to the capital and laid wreaths in memory of Dr. Franjo Tuđman.

Dr. Franjo Tuđman remains a controversial character and for many is a dividing character depending on which side of the political spectrum one stands on. While many consider him to be the heroic first present of the then newly independent Republic of Croatia, freed from the former shackles of an increasingly oppressive Yugoslavia, others see him in a rather different light, with many speculating on his placement as being one coordinated at the hands of those with underhand motives working against the newly independent state.

In any case, statues of the first Croatian president can be found all over Croatia, with the newest in the Croatian capital attracting a particular amount of attention, in both a positive and a negative sense.

The monument stands at a height of almost seven metres, making it the largest in the whole of the Republic of Croatia currently.

Make sure to stay up to date with our dedicated politics page for much more on the Croatian political scene.

 

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