Protest For and Against Marshall Tito Square

At the same time, on the same square, ones are fighting to rename the square while others are accusing them of accentuating Ustashism.

ZAGREB, CROATIA – The public rally entitled “Round up for the Square” – a civil initiative to rename Zagreb0s Marshall Tito Square into the Theatre Square was held at 11am on Saturday. The organisers stress that the initiative was in the spirit of the Council of Europe’s resolution on the international denouncement of the crimes of totalitarian communist regimes, as well as a Croatian Parliament Declaration on denouncing crimes of the communist regime in Croatia. 

The protest was organised on occasion of the International Human Rights Day. The organisers stressed that it was unacceptable that an attractive city square bore the name of communist dictator Tito who quenched people’s rights to live.

It is interesting that another protest is held at the same square and at the same time, but on the other side of the square, against the renaming of the square. This rally is organised by “The Civilian Initiative against Ustashism.” They stress that the above mentioned protester organisers glorified Ustashism.

They stressed that the patron of the protest was the Alliance of Anti-Fascist Fighters from Zagreb and the Association of Zagreb’s Antifascism Youth, adding that Tito had nothing to do with that. They dubbed the initiative for the change of the square’s name as an evident attack on Croatia’s antifascism.

The same protests happened last year too. The police were keeping the peace on the square and apart from the two opposing sides slewing insults at one another there were no incidents.