ZAGREB, October 30, 2019 – Representatives of the Croat community in Serbia on Tuesday held a news conference to point out the problem of a lack of working space for their activities in the Serbian capital city, underscoring that local authorities have been ignoring their requests for a few years.
Jasna Vojnić, the leader of the Croatian National Council, and Tomislav Žigmanov of the Democratic Alliance of the Vojvodina Croats (DSHV) and a parliamentary deputy in the Serbian assembly, told the conference in the Croatian embassy in Belgrade that in the last three years they had sent five letters with requests to the Belgrade authorities to ensure a working space for the local Croat community and for its cultural centre.
It is high time that in Belgrade there were some premises for Croat associations to meet and promote their culture to the benefit of both Croatia and Serbia, said the local Croat leaders.
They recalled that ethnic Serbs in the Croatian capital of city have the premises for their activities in the very centre of Zagreb, and that the high-level meetings have been held between the mayors of Belgrade and Zagreb on this topic, however, all that has not yet resulted in providing ethnic Croats with premises in Belgrade.
Vojnić says that in Belgrade there are 7,752 Croats and the space for their activities is essential for the survival of the Croat community.
Žigmanov warns that without the adequate premises the community could hardly organise its activities.
Unfortunately, we have not managed to solve this problem to date, he told the news conference.
Žigmanov said that the experiences and models for the activities of the Serb National Council and the Prosvjeta cultural society in Croatia should be followed by Serbia when it comes to creating conditions for activities of local Croats.
More news about Croats in Serbia can be found in the Diaspora section.
