This year’s motto is “Croatia Has Not Yet Perished”.
Around seven thousand people took part in the 15th Zagreb Pride on Saturday. This year, in addition to gay rights, the participants wanted to emphasize the importance of defence of all freedoms for all Croatian citizens, reports Jutarnji List on June 11, 2016.
With colourful banners with slogans such as: “Pride without prejudice”, “Only love vs. Let them drop dead”, “Our children deserve better”, “Journey to the dark side is not our choice”, the participants strolled through the city centre to show their disagreement with the current direction of the country.
“Fifteen years are behind us, and in that time a lot has changed. We are freer and accept diversity. However, in the last few months you can feel divisions in our society. Since the referendum against gay marriage, the march against abortion and the burning of a Gay Pride flag a few days ago – all this shows that the right of speech and the right to a different opinion are endangered. We have gathered here in order to send a message that Croatia must remain a free and democratic society without returning to the darkness and extremism”, said Marko Jurčić, one of the organizers of Zagreb Pride.
This year’s event was joined by significantly more people than last year, when according to police estimates there were about 5,000 people. The largest Pride took place in 2013, when about 15,000 people marched through the city centre. This year, the event attracted many well-known people, include numerous politicians from liberal and left-wing parties. One of them was former Interior Minister Ranko Ostojić, who took over the Pride flag and carried it for a while.
The participants highlighted the importance of ensuring the freedom for all women who must be allowed to make decisions about their body, they demanded freedom of all media, particularly public and non-profit, without fear of censorship from the state or the Church, as well as freedom for all LGBTIQ people.
