Mayor of Supetar and prominent SDP member Ivana Marković on her Facebook profile, she published an interesting text on the occasion of the Day of Anti-Fascist Struggle and a photo of a woman raising her right hand.
– It is the end of June in Dalmatia. It’s crazy hot. There is no domestic suite anywhere on Split’s Riva. They have been squeezed out by cruise ships, apartments and coffee prices that have long since ceased to be a drink and have become an investment product. Riva is full of furesti, Marmontova is full of furesti, the city is full of furesti. People came to see what was once called the Mediterranean way of life, and today it is sold at the price of a souvenir.
Diocletian once lived there. When they called him to return to the throne, he replied that he was planting cabbage. If he were to walk around Split today, he would probably return to the cabbage before reaching Peristil. Some people just have limits.
The city is buzzing in all the languages of the world. The Chinese take photos of Riva. The English photograph the Chinese photographing Riva. The Germans photograph the English photographing the Chinese photographing Riva. Seagulls circle over the harbor, waiters rush between tables, and Split, like every summer, plays the backdrop of its own life.
A little further away, a young foreign couple is walking with a dieter who is licking an ice cream and asking for another one. For him, this is an ordinary summer day. Sea, sun and ice cream. He is waiting to be taken to bathe after this ordeal of walking on hot stone.
And then on the edge of that tourist postcard appears a scene that seems to have fallen out of some old, unfortunate footnote of the darkest European history.
– Mom, what is it?
The mother looked towards the group of people in black.
– I think that these are double connotations.
– Double what?
– Connotations.
The child looks at the black flags and salutes in confusion.
– We were taught at school that they were fascists.
– Who?
– Well, the ones in black.
– Yes.
– And they taught us about that greeting. That he is evil.
– Yes.
– And look, that beard over there is doing the same greeting.
– Yes.
– Then they are fascists?
The mother pauses.
– No, son. Those are the double connotations.
– And what is that?
– That’s when something looks like fascism, sounds like fascism and greets you as fascism, but they explain to you that it’s not fascism.
– And what is it then?
– Patriotism.
– And how is it different?
– I don’t really know. This is something only in Croatia.
– Then how do people know?
– Because he explains to them.
– Who?
– Andrej Plenković. Their prime minister.
The child observes the column a little longer.
– At our school, I would get a unit to answer like that and call you to school.
– Yes. Probably would. And they continue faster to get away from those in black as soon as possible.
Later, they will take home magnets, photos and memories. And one postcard from Split. On the front, the sea, the waterfront, the palace, the sun and the Mediterranean. On the back of the double connotation. The strangest thing of all was not what they saw. The strangest thing was how many people tried to explain that they didn’t see it.
Happy Anti-Fascist Struggle Day! – she concluded the post.
