HAMMER AND THE LAW ON THE SAME TASK: The census in Vukovar suggests that the Cyrillic alphabet will go illegal

What did not succeed in the war, could succeed now, if it turns out that there are no more than 33% of Serbs in the city on the Danube

WHEN the final and official census data are published in Croatia at the end of the year, extreme right-wingers in Vukovar could celebrate. What did not succeed in the war, could succeed now, if it turns out that there are no more than 33% of Serbs in the city on the Danube. In that case, there is no more bilingualism, Cyrillic, or everything that the Serbs, at least on paper, were guaranteed by the constitutional law.

And how he “guaranteed” them in Vukovar all these years can be seen in the example of demolishing Cyrillic signs and obstructing all those provisions of the law that were supposed to enable bilingualism in areas where Serbs or some other national minority make up a third of the population. In all possible ways, this was avoided in Vukovar, so the Constitutional Court, with some formulations, which could be interpreted one way or another, went through the hair of those for whom the war is still going on. The result was the additional emigration of Serbs, who could not exercise the rights guaranteed by the Croatian constitution in Vukovar, and were left in the lurch by political parties of all colors and orientations.

The few remaining Serbs in Croatia have neither sought nor are looking for anything special. Most of them are still struggling, because they live like a hundred or more years ago, without electricity and water, young people do not have a job, employment quotas in state and public administration are not respected. On the eve of the census, the Serb parties in Croatia themselves encouraged people to declare themselves as Serbs, because many avoid that in order not to have problems. Vukovar is still a divided city, with separate schools and numerous problems plaguing not only Serbs but also Croats, who are also leaving.

But in Vukovar, the epilogue for Serbs could be: what failed with a hammer is confirmed by law. Cyrillic signs will go into the past, and Cyrillic is probably illegal.