Current and former president ditch Tito´s birthday celebration
Croatian Times, 24. 5. 2010.
Neither the current Croatian president nor his predecessor will join the anti-fascist protest scheduled for Saturday in the birthplace of Josip Broz Tito, despite expectations.
Organisers had invited both the former head of state Stjepan Masic and the current president, Ivo Josipovic to join them at the demonstration that will take place in Kumrovec on the anniversary of Tito’s 118th birthday.
The former president Stjepan Masic excused himself saying he had work to do in a different town, while President Josipovic he was scheduled to go to Krapina and visit the recently opened Neanderthal museum there.
Some 10,000 people from Croatia but also other republics of former Yugoslavia are expected to gather in Kumrovec on Saturday to commemorate Tito’s birthday and former national holiday, Youth Day.
But Hrvatske ciste stranke prava (Croatian Clean Party of Right) have announced a counter-demonstration against “Tito’s totalitarian communist regime.”
Josip Miljak, the president of the party said: “We registered our gathering with the police a month ago. Some two hundred of us will come in four buses. At the meeting we will read messages about Tito’s crimes. He massacred Croatian people and we are protesting against the amnesty that these partisan meetings give him.”
The president of the organisers of Saturday’s demonstration Tomislav Badovinac from the Union of Associations of Josip Broz Tito said that he is not concerned about the opposition.
