HDZ marks the 104th anniversary of the birth of Franjo Tuđman

Veliko Trgovišće, the birthplace of the first Croatian president and founder of the HDZ - Franjo Tuđman, marked the 104th anniversary of his birth on Thursday. On the occasion, a delegation from the HDZ lit candles and laid a wreath at the bust of the party founder near his childhood home.

A mass was celebrated in the parish church, and the traditional 17th scientific conference "The Days of Dr. Franjo Tuđman - Croats through the centuries" was held in the Memorial School in Veliko Trgovišće to mark the 104th anniversary of the birth of the founder of the HDZ political party and the first Croatian President. Franjo Tuđman was born in the small town in Zagorje on May 14th 1922.

"Today we have come to pay tribute to the man who is most responsible for the establishment of an independent Croatia. Today, distanced from the events of 1989 and 1990, we can safely say that without this man, the Croatian state would not exist today," noted the president of the "Dr. Franjo Tuđman" HDZ Founders' Association, Ivica Tafra.

"The key reasons behind our success were that he was the father of the doctrine of national reconciliation, not reconciliation of ideologies, but reconciliation of Croatian people. In the Homeland War, for the first time in Croatian history, since the 7th century, Croats fought under the same flag, under the same leadership, and within a single army," added the honorary president of the "Dr. Franjo Tuđman" HDZ Founders' Association, Vladimir Šeks.

Source: HRT