City assembly votes to change name of prominent square on initiative of rightwing party Independent for Croatia

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Zagreb has stripped the name of late Yugoslav leader Josip Broz Tito from a prominent square in the Croatian capital in a move that has split public opinion.



The vote in the city assembly to change the name of Marshal Tito Square was called on the initiative of the rightwing party, Independent for Croatia, which labelled the communist leader a dictator.

“No street or square in Croatia should bear Josip Broz Tito’s name,” said the party leader, Zlatko Hasanbegović, before the vote.

It will now be named the Republic of Croatia Square.

The decision, backed by 29 deputies in the 51-seat assembly, gave “small and belated satisfaction to all victims … of Yugoslav communist Titoist terror”, Hasanbegović said.

His party offered its support to beleaguered Zagreb mayor Milan Bandić on condition that the square’s name was changed. The populist mayor was re-elected for a sixth term in June but he struggled to form a majority in the new city assembly.

Croatia’s election is a warning about the return of nationalism to the Balkans​ | Paul Mason Read more

For several years, Bandić refused to change the square’s name and said the issue would be decided at a referendum.

But, as he needed the support of Hasanbegović’s party, he eventually ceded to its demand.

The issue has drawn thousand-strong crowds in support of the name change in the square in recent years, prompting counter-rallies by Tito supporters.

Born in 1892 to a Croatian father and Slovenian mother, Tito ruled the former Yugoslavia for 35 years until his death in 1980 and made it one of the most prosperous communist countries.

After his death, Yugoslavia collapsed in a series of bloody wars that claimed more than 100,000 lives. He remains a divisive figure in the former federation.

The post-1991 successor states to the former Yugoslavia are: Bosnia and Herzegovina; Croatia; Kosovo; Macedonia; Montenegro; Serbia; and Slovenia.