ZAGREB, July 24, 2019 – The Croatian National Council’s (HNV) leadership believes it has raised the level of the Croatian minority’s rights in Serbia, albeit by making big political efforts, through media pressure and despite a lack of understanding or passivity from local government, the HNV said on Tuesday.
The body which represents the Croatian minority in Serbia’s state bodies in education, culture, information and official language use spoke about the first six months of its new makeup.
“Croats in Serbia are not part of the system. We don’t have representatives in the executive authority, either state or local, unlike the Serb minority in Croatia which has deputy prefects and deputy mayors so for every, even the smallest issue, we have to… seek the intervention of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić,” HNV executive board member Darko Šarić Lukendić said in Subotica.
He was speaking in the context of a standstill in the realisation of the biggest project in education in the Croatian language, the establishment of a Croatian school centre, because local government in Subotica has not adopted amendments concerning elementary schools which are a prerequisite for the Vojvodina province government to adopt a decision on the centre.
HNV president Jasna Vojnić highlighted cooperation with Croatia’s prime minister and president as well as other state bodies.
More news about the status of Croats in Serbia can be found in the Diaspora section.
