ZAGREB, October 17, 2018 – The Croat community in Serbia held ceremonies in Novi Sad and Petrovaradin on Tuesday evening to mark the birthday of Ban (Viceroy) Josip Jelačić, who had served as the governor of Croatia from 1848 to 1859.
On this occasion, Prime Minister of Vojvodina Igor Mirović emphasised the importance of the Croat minority for democracy in the northern Serbian province and announced greater financial assistance for its activities, local media said on Wednesday.
Mirović said that the provincial government provided considerable support for the preservation and promotion of the identity of the Croat minority as a whole. “The provincial government allocates considerable funds for the functioning of the Institute for Culture of the Vojvodina Croats, for cultural creativity and publishing in the Croatian language, and we will continue this to a greater extent in the future,” he said, adding that annual allocations for the Croatian-language weekly “Hrvatska Riječ” had been increased.
Mirović recalled that the Croatian Language Instruction Office had opened at the Faculty of Philosophy in Novi Sad, and that Serbia had allocated more than 500,000 euro for the reconstruction of Josip Jelačić’s birth house in Petrovaradin.
Jelačić was born in 1801 in Petrovaradin which at the time was part of the Slavonian Military Frontier of the Habsburg Empire. He was a noted army general, remembered for his military campaigns during the Revolutions of 1848 and for his abolition of serfdom in Croatia.
“The status of the Croat minority in Serbia and the Serb minority in Croatia is of key significance and that’s why it is important for us to work more on what connects us and to seek new avenues of cooperation,” Mirović said.
As of mid-2016, the Vojvodina government has been led by the Serbian Progressive Party of President Aleksandar Vučić in a coalition with the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians and the Serbian Socialist Party.
