Croats in Vojvodina
A Community of Culture, Struggle, and Resilience
This blog post is based on a part of the episode of my podcast Zov Domovine, recorded in 2020, where I spoke with Tomislav Žigmanov, a prominent advocate for the Croatian community in Serbia. At the time, he had not yet entered the Serbian parliament, and many of the issues discussed in this episode reflected the political and cultural challenges Croats in Vojvodina were still facing.
(You can watch the full episode below.)
In 2020, the Croatian minority in Vojvodina stood as one of the most culturally vibrant yet politically marginalized ethnic groups in Serbia. Numbering around 58,000 people, this community had long preserved a strong Croatian identity, despite facing decades of political suppression and demographic decline.
Vojvodina, located in the northern part of Serbia, had always been known for its multicultural makeup, home to more than 25 ethnic groups. Among them, Croats had historically played an important role, particularly in cities like Subotica and Sombor. However, the turbulent 1990s—marked by the disintegration of Yugoslavia, war, and nationalist propaganda—ushered in a dark period. Many Croats left the region during that time, and those who remained often experienced fear, exclusion, and discrimination.
Despite these adversities, the Croatian community remained resilient. Cultural preservation was carried forward by institutions like the Croatian Cultural and Educational Society (HKPD) and the publishing house Hrvatska riječ. These organizations worked tirelessly to promote the Croatian language, literature, and media. Catholic churches also continued to serve as cultural and spiritual centers, offering mass and other services in Croatian.
At the time of this podcast in 2020, Croats in Serbia still did not have guaranteed political representation. There was no reserved seat for them in the Serbian parliament, and internal divisions made cohesive political action difficult. Tomislav Žigmanov, a prominent community leader, had not yet entered parliament as a representative of the Croatian minority, although his efforts for the community were widely recognized and respected.
Education in Croatian remained limited. While some primary and secondary schools offered instruction in Croatian, and the University of Novi Sad had a department for Croatian language and literature, more systemic support was necessary to secure cultural continuity.
Another growing concern in 2020 was the increasing recognition and political instrumentalization of the Bunjevac identity. Moves were being made to classify the Bunjevac dialect (bunjevački govor) as intangible cultural heritage, which many Croats viewed as a strategic effort to divide the community and minimize their historical presence in the region. This listing on the national register had not yet reached UNESCO at that time, but the tension it caused was palpable.
Despite political and institutional obstacles, the Croats in Vojvodina continued to celebrate their identity through literature, theater, festivals, and everyday life. Their story in 2020 was not just one of survival, but of enduring pride, cultural richness, and the ongoing fight for equal rights and recognition.
What Happened After 2020?
In August 2022, Tomislav Žigmanov entered the Serbian Parliament as a member, marking a historic moment for the Croatian minority in Serbia. He later became Minister for Human and Minority Rights and Social Dialogue, the first Croat ever to hold a ministerial post in the Serbian government.
In December 2023, the Bunjevac dialect (bunjevački govor) was officially added to UNESCO’s Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, sparking further discussions and concerns within the Croatian community in Vojvodina about identity and cultural politics.
Author: Anita Prka Đurašić
TRANSCRIPT:
CROATS IN VOJVODINA - Guest: Tomislav Žigmanov, President of the DSHV
[Speaker 2]
As for the Bunjevci language, we will repeat only one more time, it is a dialect of the Croatian language. The dialect of the Croatian language, which is in Ikavica, in Nova Štokavsko, and in the last few days it has come to the attention of the public again, since in Subotica they asked for the Bunjevci language to be made one of the official languages in use in the city of Subotica.
Why this is somewhat difficult for the Croats in Vojvodina, or why it is an attack on them, we will hear in the future. Here, I have the honor to greet in our show, as I announced, the president of the DSHV, Mr. Tomislav Žigmanov.
[Speaker 1]
Good evening, greetings to all your viewers.
[Speaker 2]
Respect, good evening and welcome to our show. Thank you, Mr. Žigmanov, for joining us and taking the time for our show. What is happening in Subotica?
Now, I've just shown the audience a little presentation about the Bunjevci, their ancestral homeland, I explained a little bit about the Bunjevci language. At the beginning of March, the Bunjevci National Council, which represents Bunjevci and Croats, proposed an initiative to introduce the Bunjevci language into official use in Subotica. On this initiative, the mayor of Subotica, Stevan Bakić, proposed a change in the statute of the city of Subotica, after which the city council of Subotica decided on 4.
March on the introduction of the Bunjevci language into official use. However, the Croatian side, with you at the helm, the SDSKV, and the Embassy of the Republic of Croatia in Belgrade, as well as the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Zagreb, have reacted very, very sharply to this. Here's how you comment on this initiative?
[Speaker 1]
Well, to use the words of the Member of the Croatian Parliament Marijana Petir, this is a kind of attack on the Croatian Community in Vojvodina in the Republic of Serbia. Namely, the identity dispute about the belonging of the Bunjevci to the Croatian people has been going on here for more than 30 years. At the end of the 80s, the 20.
The regime of Slobodan Milošović came to power in the 19th century, where various activities by primarily state structures are trying to make a separate national community that will have little or no connections with the Croatian people from our losing identity components, language, part of customs, part of our collective memory. These processes have been going on for 30 years, they have had a more intense history, periods with greater successes, with less, and now it has culminated in an initiative that was not too expected for us, according to the fact that there were already certain efforts of theirs supported by Serbian, scientific, conservative and non-Croat-friendly structures, institutions, individuals, to introduce the so-called Bunjevci language into official use on the territory of the city of Subotica.
Of course, we, as Bunjevci who consider ourselves Croats, experienced this as a kind of attack on us, because we Bunjevci, those who call the language, consider it speech, it is part of our language corpus, it was a dialect that belonged to the Štokavian Ikavian alphabet, we use it in our daily address, sometimes more, sometimes less, our traditions almost constantly, there is a part of the not too large and written heritage, and in the last 50 years in Subotica, within the literature of the Croats here, there is a strong creativity on it. Of course, we countered very rationally with a cool head, in a way that we pointed out the pre-pore when it comes to the formal legal framework, namely, according to positive laws in the Republic of Serbia, official use cannot be introduced on the territory of local self-government and language if there are not 15% of members of a certain community on it, that is in the case of the Croats, this condition is not met.
On the other hand, we have very sharply opposed the fact that something that is speech, which does not have enough spelling solutions or grammatical solutions within it, which is relatively impotent when it comes to lexis, when it comes to all functions in today's world, which is one standard should go from expressing thoughts to thinking about it, to the possibility of elaborating the most complex, theoretical and practical aspects of human life, to exposing it, to be a means of communication among the sciences, to everyday communication. The Bunjevci speech does not have this kind of lexical material, like all other speeches.
It has its very significant function in everyday address, as it concerns the world that was in the past, through different kinds of terms used in describing ethnography, the former world, and so on. And of course, it can also draw its relevance in artistic practices, primarily when it comes to those arts that are based on language, that is, either literature or theater. We have all these experiences.
We have probably the most representative dialectal poetry in Štokavica within the Croatian community as a whole, and of course we are proud of that. And finally, we pointed out that the case of the so-called Bunjevac language, which all Serbian and Croatian linguists classify, as I said, in the new Štokavian dialect, and which as such then belongs to the Croatian language corpus, that it is a kind of alienation from Croatian heritage, Croatian cultural components, etc., and that this will have its repercussions when it comes to Croatian-Serbian relations.
Because the Republic of Serbia has signed an agreement with the Republic of Croatia, Mutual Protection and Minorities, where such practices, such procedures, are not, as I would say, not prescribed. In this sense, it was then to be expected that the reaction of both Croatian scientific and political, i.e. state institutions when it comes to this and more than problematic procedure of local and local authorities.
[Speaker 2]
You were very active and posted on your Twitter profile. Are you satisfied with the involvement of the Croatian side, i.e. the embassy in Belgrade, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs in Zagreb, language institutions or individuals, intellectuals in Croatia?
[Speaker 1]
It was to be expected that the science of the Institute of Croatian Language and Linguistics would react most promptly. You saw a few days after this incident, or should we say the case of the introduction of the so-called Bunjevci language into official use, announced its statement signed by the director Željko Jozić. It is very clearly and unambiguously pointed out that it is not possible to establish a standard from a single speech, from what belongs to oral, imitated, traditional patterns in communication, that there are no serious linguistic and sociolinguistic assumptions, and on the other hand, that this part of the overall Croatian linguistic heritage is more than clearly marked in both Serbian and Croatian dialectology. And in that sense, it is then to be interpreted as a fragmentation of the Croatian language. And last but not least, it is then put in a broader context, as the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts pointed out a little later, that it is then also a kind of state intervention that interferes in our identity disputes, that is, that through it not only the language is alienated, but also that the Croatian people themselves are dismembered or brought into the process of de-Christianization. Of course, the state authorities are reacting more cautiously, in agreement with a larger number of entities, but the central state office for Croats and the Republic of Croatia has also spoken, State Secretary Zvonko Milas, has spoken several times to the Minister of Foreign and European Affairs, very clearly, resolutely, with a note of protest, and this is the last one in particular.
And we would have been happy if there had been more lively communication with the representatives of the diplomatic and consular authorities here in Serbia, because it remained a bit like a kind of bitter taste, that even after the threats that followed, which was a kind of second part of this game of ours, so to speak, in sports terms, is that we were not contacted, to possibly encourage each other, that they checked mine as serious, whether they brought unrest, whether they were perceived, not only by us who established the Croatian institution at the helm, but also when it comes to citizens. That interest would certainly be a kind of easier acceptance of these unpleasant situations for us, but on the other hand, I think that information could be conveyed more faithfully and truthfully when it comes to this whole case.
[Speaker 2]
Absolutely, we care very much as a show that goes for the Croatian diaspora and for our minorities and autochthonous communities, of course we somehow come to more truthful and accurate information, because only with accurate information and the truth can we continue. And this case is especially difficult precisely because you have just mentioned, just to add to it. So, this is not just about the Croatian language, it is actually as if you were taking speech out of the corpus of the Croatian language, borrowing it, but a language is both a culture and a people.
And what is a people other than a state? In fact, can we somehow say that this is a slightly bigger impact?
[Speaker 1]
Yes, this is the strongest and most complex blow to our identity disputes so far, because in this way the state of Serbia, which is the banner of local self-government, shows a certain kind of positive recognition by the fact that it is scientifically absurd and legally impossible and politically harmful, as if they wanted to show that when it comes to the Croatian components of the cultural linguistic heritage, one can do almost anything one wants. Of course, this has possible and lasting consequences, based on the plan that the city authorities in Subotica had to meet the demands in the Bunjanica communities with a policy of positive discrimination, we sent requests that in the city of Sombor, the municipalities of Apatin and Bac, where there are about ten percent of the same members of the Croatian community, to introduce an official warning in the territory of the entire local self-governments according to the same model, which resulted in a whole avalanche of negative threats.
In the media, there are frequent writings and negative interpretations when it comes to our legitimate and equally exemplary actions when it comes to Bunjevci and non-Croats, which has additionally brought unrest and some kind of insecurity. Of course, all this also had internal political reasons, the issue of the status of Kosovo, the elections in Montenegro, the confrontation with crime. To such situations in Serbia, so to speak, it is grateful to play on some kind of Croatian topics here, because the mobilization in the public naturally increases, that the focus and interest are directed to that as well.
And on the other hand, when it comes to status and opportunities within the community itself, then it manifests itself through widespread fear, insecurity, increasing mimicry. And all this worries about what we will follow, because there are several challenges ahead of us. First of all, in less than a month, the enrollment of the first grade of elementary school will begin.
This is not a social environment in which parents will dare to give their children a performance in Croatian. On the other hand, in the tenth month of October, there will be a census in Serbia, for which we are of course preparing, but our experience speaks in favor of the fact that if there is a stronger presence of anti-Croatian content and discontent in the public, then in such situations there is also ethnic mimicry and a kind of unwillingness to prepare others, and finally in public, It is obvious from the point of view of a Croatian citizen of Croatian nationality to increase this, in that sense, of course, there is still a lot of time than that, we hope that something will change here.
We repeat again and the public should know this, we did not give a reason, we did not offer reasons for this kind of attack on us, we only wanted to defend the dignity of the Croatian language and point out the formal, legal, scientific, political and of course then, as I would say, I will use all democratic means in our narratives, the rational tone, arguments, facts, etc., but for certain reasons we have been very brutally and negatively exploited by the media, for the sake of all the reasons, and we can't wait and we are also giving constant contributions to end all this, because it can be to our greatest detriment, which of course we do not want, we do not give a reason I repeat, but we simply want this tapeworm to end with their language, That especially in the part of our negative media washings or representations and, of course, when it comes to these heinous threats that we have been lured out of, that they be sanctioned, publicly condemned and that they stop.
[Speaker 2]
Absolutely, you have also experienced threats, tell us a little bit about it.
[Speaker 1]
Yes, the e-mail address of the Democratic Council for the Croat's military and official e-mail address received a letter from an anonymous citizen, who presented the most monstrous threats, cursing us of course in the context of Serbia, we will not say socially acceptable, but very often labels the Ustasha mother, he said that he would come to that stinking Ustasha nest where we gather and kill us all with a machine gun like cattle.
[Speaker 2]
Terrible, this reminds me, I don't know about you, but they obviously didn't learn anything about the exodus of Croats in the 90s, as if history was repeating itself, but maybe this is a return to the politics of Slobodan Milošević?
[Speaker 1]
They couldn't say it that and say it hard. Of course, times are completely different, of course a war against Croatia is not being prepared now, of course the policies have changed, of course the geopolitical and internal political contexts and constellations are completely different, but from time to time you really have certain procedures, infrequent, but which really remind you of this type of practice. Thank God, they are still isolated, they are not followed like 90.
I think that they are going to some kind of psychological intimidation in order to demonstrate certain positions, to send messages, to be, as I would say, more servile and obedient citizens when it comes to the interest of the Croatian community. Of course, this did not disturb us, within the leadership of the Croatian Community unity has been strengthened, we are coming out of this as better and more firmly served within ourselves, all 11 Croatian cultural associations from the territory of the city of Subotica, which operate and have practices that are related to the Bunjevci tradition, and then the speech, have signed everything very clearly in one joint statement and statement, with very clear messages that they will not give up their Bunjevac components in their cultural programs, that they will continue to use the speech of the Bunjevci in their events, that they will teach children, that they will spread Ikavica, etc.
To other doctors, the entire Croatian community has reached a high agreement within itself that what belongs to us, what we think is part of our cultural and national heritage, we do not want to give up, regardless of the current relatively high risk and the price that could be paid.
[Speaker 2]
Here, my goal tonight is to pay a little more attention to all of this. It seems to us that perhaps the general public was not very familiar with this Bunjevci language, Bunjevci and what is happening there. Well, in any case, it was good that you were here with us tonight to clarify some more things for us.
And what do you think, Nili, this little bit maybe in context, this very list of the Tanovnictví that will be in September, right?
[Speaker 1]
U listopadu.
[Speaker 2]
In October. Is this perhaps some kind of prelude to this?
[Speaker 1]
Well, I say, there are some indications, messages that we have heard, since it is unbelievable for us, but the number of Bunjevci, not Croats, and those Bunjevci, like me, who consider themselves Croats, although, if you take the number of those who have emigrated to the Republic of Croatia, the number of Bunjevci in Hungary, where it is almost a list, declare themselves as Croats, more than three-quarters of the Bunjevci declare themselves Croats. Those who do not declare themselves have a certain type, either for some real reasons, or they are gestures, mimicry, because it is easier and simpler to achieve your life goals if you declare yourself in such a way, and of course in that sense, then preparing and creating some prerequisites for freely and beyond all fears, beyond all fears and any risks, declaring yourself during the census is what we strive for.
Of course, we will not come to terms with this, we are thinking, planning a certain kind of proactive relationship with certain campaigns, for people to express themselves bravely, to be faithful to their ancestors, etc. We will do the same in synergy with the HNV, with Croatian associations, with individuals, with all the positive factors within our Croatian community, which is plural, rich, which has 50 cultural associations, which has 300 events per year, which publishes 30 books with a very clear profile and books in Ikavica, not only in Bunjevac but also in Šokačka, where we have a very good and close cooperation with the Catholic Church, where we try to work synergistically in the same segment of education, in other words to be a community that will be well placed within itself, well connected within itself with clear goals for Croatia to last as long as possible and to prepare the challenges we are facing in the best possible way to respond in the best possible way. We believe that we will have the support of the Republic of Croatia, and that these activities coming from certain government structures in the Republic of Serbia will be stopped, that is, they will stop.
[Speaker 2]
So are you satisfied with how much the Republic of Croatia actually helps you from any level, is your support, or do you think that there is always room for a little more nothing?
[Speaker 1]
In the last few years, we, representatives of the Croatian National Council and the Democratic Union of Croats, have managed to make a key step forward when it comes to the support of the Republic of Croatia at all levels for the Croatian community. From the government and Prime Minister Plenković to the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs to the central state office for Croats abroad, political support is continuous and constant. We managed to increase financial support for our projects and two years ago we received support for the construction of the Croatian House, a capital project in Subotica where all professional institutions will be located, where they will have adequate space for holding sessions of our bodies, where they will have a memorial museum, etc.
All the things that other national communities do. We have achieved excellent communication and cooperation with the community of Croatian counties, because there are relatively large resources in the area of regional authorities when it comes to support, both political and financial, especially in cross-border programs. There are also cities and municipalities, we have several excellent examples, the tenth cities and municipalities from the Vukovar-Srem County support and enable free transport of children in the lower grades of primary school to attend classes in the Croatian language with their donations of several thousand to ten thousand kuna.
And here we are also thinking about support with cities and municipalities from Osijek-Baranja County so that some of the needs we have can be realized as successfully as possible. Our big problem is that we are not stakeholders in the decision-making process and that we have an excluded system of institutions where decisions are made, we do not have the institute of guaranteed mandates at any development, we are not in the executive segment of government at the local level and then we deal with politics from the street, and the financial resources we have at our disposal here in Serbia are insignificant. They are insufficient for our needs, and then financial support, not only political, from Croatia is sometimes crucial.
Of course, we would not like to have enough funds for the realization of those initiatives that we consider within our community and by consensus we somehow agree that they will be ours and that we implement them. Unfortunately, this is still not the case and we would like something to be done in this regard. Of course, there is still room for support in Croatia, there is a certain imbalance and we believe that there will be a growing awareness in Croatia that due to the specific leverage of the Croatian community, we live in Serbia, we live, just to say this, in probably the most unfavorable social environment, Croats in Serbia have the status of the most hated people, we live in a country that has the lowest gross national income in this part of Europe, which is also a candidate for the Croats, who are probably the poorest in the world.
These are all unfavorable social factors that complicate not so much our survival as the creation of preconditions for the development and sustainability of our community. Of course, we look at it rationally, we look for the most successful steps, we are happy when we can solve something with the proactive attitude of the authorities of the Republic of Serbia, if not, we always count on the support and help of all levels of government, individuals, non-governmental organizations, the public from the Republic of Croatia.
[Speaker 2]
Well, I hope that we will continue to talk about this topic, we will hear from each other regularly as soon as something is interesting. We must not forget the attention of the Croats in Vojvodina in our Croatian public, and we should regularly raise them, talk about it and look for better solutions so that our Croats in Vojvodina would be at least as good as the ethnic minority Serbs in Croatia. At the very least, that there should be one reciprocity, that it be reciprocal and that all these interstate contracts actually make sense, and that our Croats feel safe, welcome and unforgotten by the mother country around the world, rather than having support.
Today, on behalf of our entire show, on my personal behalf, I express my greatest support in these moments in which you find yourself.
(TRANSCRIPT AND TRANSLATION AI GENERATED)
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