Before his death 40 years ago, Josip Broz Tito, the charismatic and controversial dictator of the former Yugoslavia, privately shared a “regret,” his grandson says.
Speaking by telephone, 72-year-old Joska Broz summons the words of an illustrious grandfather who took him in as a child.
In the twilight of his life, Tito confided that it was a “mistake” to allow the 1974 constitution that loosened Yugoslavia’s federal system, opening up fissures that later exploded into war.
Photo: AFP
While the man who embodied Yugoslavia did not live to witness its brutal shattering a decade after his death, he saw the seeds of discord had been planted, his grandson said.
“From one state, we created eight small ones ... we crumbled everything, that’s my biggest mistake”, Joska Broz remembers Tito saying — an admission the powerful leader would not have made in public.
With or without the 1974 constitution, many consider Tito’s passing six years later to be the true death knell for the nation he founded from the ashes of World War II.
Home to a patchwork of Serbians, Croatians, Slovenians, Albanians and other communities, the nation was held together by their lifelong dictator’s magnetic personality — and tools of suppression.
While Tito is praised for turning Yugoslavia into one of the most prosperous communist nations, critics highlight his jailing of political dissidents, and his repression of the historical grievances between communities that surged back with a vengeance in the 1990s.
One of six grandchildren, Joska Broz saw a different side of a man often viewed as larger-than-life.
Tito became a “father” to Joska Broz and his sister, Zlatica, after their parents divorced when he was four, he said. The children lived in Tito’s home in Dedinje, an affluent Belgrade neighborhood, until they were teenagers.
In spite of being a statesman known for his extravagant parties and a bon vivant lifestyle, Tito also “liked simple things,” Joska Broz said.
“He was relaxed with his family, he particularly liked fish and chicken, two dishes he could not enjoy at official meals” because “they are eaten with the fingers,” he said.
He “taught us that we had to live from our work without exploiting our family name,” said the grandson, who has been a police officer, restauranteur and politician.
It was as a police officer that Joska Broz helped manage the logistics of Tito’s enormous funeral, which brought together a who’s who of global leaders, a legacy of a shrewd diplomacy that crisscrossed Cold War divides.
He last saw his grandfather on his deathbed in Ljubljana, where he passed away on May 4, 1980, after battling a months-long illness.
“I left for Belgrade and when I arrived I heard the news” that he was gone, Joska Broz said.
While Tito’s legacy remains a topic of debate in the Balkans, Joska Broz staunchly defends it.
He describes the comfortable lifestyles that people afforded under socialism — even if Tito racked up huge loans to cover the costs.
“We had a real state, free school and health system, peace. Those of today can’t give us a 10th of what we had,” he said.
However, historian Cedomir Antic said that Tito’s political legacy has not stood the test of time.
Of the three pillars of Titoism, “fraternity” and the workers’ self-management economic model are relics of the past, while the third, the global non-alignment movement, has since faded from relevance, Antic said.
“Self-management collapsed when Tito was still alive, non-alignment makes little sense because the bipolar world has disappeared and fraternity evaporated in the bloody wars that marked the end of Yugoslavia,” he said.
NO EXCUSES: Marcos said his administration was acting on voters’ demands, but an academic said the move was emotionally motivated after a poor midterm showing Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr yesterday sought the resignation of all his Cabinet secretaries, in a move seen as an attempt to reset the political agenda and assert his authority over the second half of his single six-year term. The order came after the president’s allies failed to win a majority of Senate seats contested in the 12 polls on Monday last week, leaving Marcos facing a divided political and legislative landscape that could thwart his attempts to have an ally succeed him in 2028. “He’s talking to the people, trying to salvage whatever political capital he has left. I think it’s
Polish presidential candidates offered different visions of Poland and its relations with Ukraine in a televised debate ahead of next week’s run-off, which remains on a knife-edge. During a head-to-head debate lasting two hours, centrist Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, from Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s governing pro-European coalition, faced the Eurosceptic historian Karol Nawrocki, backed by the right-wing populist Law and Justice party (PiS). The two candidates, who qualified for the second round after coming in the top two places in the first vote on Sunday last week, clashed over Poland’s relations with Ukraine, EU policy and the track records of their
UNSCHEDULED VISIT: ‘It’s a very bulky new neighbor, but it will soon go away,’ said Johan Helberg of the 135m container ship that run aground near his house A man in Norway awoke early on Thursday to discover a huge container ship had run aground a stone’s throw from his fjord-side house — and he had slept through the commotion. For an as-yet unknown reason, the 135m NCL Salten sailed up onto shore just meters from Johan Helberg’s house in a fjord near Trondheim in central Norway. Helberg only discovered the unexpected visitor when a panicked neighbor who had rung his doorbell repeatedly to no avail gave up and called him on the phone. “The doorbell rang at a time of day when I don’t like to open,” Helberg told television
‘A THREAT’: Guyanese President Irfan Ali called on Venezuela to follow international court rulings over the region, whose border Guyana says was ratified back in 1899 Misael Zapara said he would vote in Venezuela’s first elections yesterday for the territory of Essequibo, despite living more than 100km away from the oil-rich Guyana-administered region. Both countries lay claim to Essequibo, which makes up two-thirds of Guyana’s territory and is home to 125,000 of its 800,000 citizens. Guyana has administered the region for decades. The centuries-old dispute has intensified since ExxonMobil discovered massive offshore oil deposits a decade ago, giving Guyana the largest crude oil reserves per capita in the world. Venezuela would elect a governor, eight National Assembly deputies and regional councilors in a newly created constituency for the 160,000