The proposal to rehouse Tito has caused rifts within Serbia’s ruling coalition, which although led by the center-right Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) also includes the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Movement of Socialists, as well as the ultranationalist Serbian Oathkeepers.
Outside the government, prominent intellectuals in Serbia have balked at the idea of disinterring Tito, who is still beloved in Serbia and across the region.
The main street in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, still bears Tito’s name, as do streets in North Macedonia, Montenegro and Slovenia. Even places as far from Serbia as Algeria, Brazil and Egypt have roadways bearing Tito’s name, as well as EU countries France and Italy.
As the lifelong president of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Tito led an atypically moderate socialist country that maintained a close relationship with both West and East. Figures such as conservative British Prime Minister Winston Churchill were among his close friends, while communist Cuban President Fidel Castro supplied his addiction to the best premium tobacco from the island nation.
Most notably, Tito prised Yugoslavia from the clutches of the Soviet Union and its rigid communist world order, and founded the so-called Non-Aligned Movement. The third-way world order was instrumental in supporting post-colonial countries such as Jawaharlal Nehru’s India, and inspired figures such as South African leader Nelson Mandela.
Hundreds of thousands have visited Tito’s tomb and the accompanying museum in Belgrade, from places as far afield as the hardline hermit state of North Korea, whose rendition of a song dedicated to the leader remains a viral curiosity.
