While some want to ban communist symbols in Croatia, others celebrate the official birthday of Marshall Tito.
On Saturday, the Josip Broz Tito Association organized a traditional event called “Day of Youth and Joy 2016” in Kumrovec, the birthplace of Yugoslav President Josip Broz Tito, reports Jutarnji List on May 28, 2016.
In former Yugoslavia, 25 May was celebrated as the Day of Youth and Tito’s official birthday. Although both Tito and Yugoslavia are long gone, some of this admirers from Croatia and other former Yugoslav republics traditional gather in late May in his birthplace Kumrovec, a small village in the Hrvatsko Zagorje region of Croatia.
This year, according to reports by Slovenian media, the event gathered as many as 20,000 people, including former Croatian President Stjepan Mesić, president of the Union of Antifascist Fighters Franjo Habulin, Mayor of Kumrovec Dragutin Ulama, president of the Union of Josip Broz Tito Associations Jovica Vejnović, and president of the Serbian National Council Milorad Pupovac.
The event started with the Croatian national anthem and the Internationale.
Speaking for Slovenian daily Delo, former Croatian President Stjepan Mesić said that he supported the memory of Tito, because it was thanks to him and his organization that the partisans were victorious during the Second World War. “We should be proud of that”, said Mesić. “The whole of Europe is celebrating Victory Day, only in Croatia there are no celebrations”, he added.
However, there are those who claim that Tito should not be celebrated but condemned for crimes which were committed during his rule, and one political party recently suggested that Croatia should ban all communist symbols.
