“My grandma is definitely the biggest Tito’s fan I know.”

Jelena Prtorić, freelance multimedia journalist from Croatia was surprised to discover in Maribor (Slovenia) a promising social laboratory against economical crisis.

Did you experienced any of the 90’s Balkans war?

Yes, I was in Croatia when the war broke out.

What do you remember from this time?

I was really young when the war started. Also, I grew up in Rijeka, in a region of Croatia that wasn’t really affected in the war. The worst scenes I remember from that period come from TV reports.

Mine are all the usual childhood memories, plus some more specific to a country in a war: playing with other children in air raid shelters (though air raid shelters seemed to me like a lot of fun back then), learning about hand grenades and landmines in school, air alerts, receiving a gift — a doll and a greeting card — for Christmas from an unknown Italian girl (it was some kind of a humanitarial program, I guess. Still have the doll, but I cannot find the card anymore).

Do people in your environment (family/friends…) still talk about Tito and Yougoslavia time? Is there a Tit-ostalgia?

I wouldn’t say there is a great “titonostalgic” trend taking place in Croatia. In the political arena, Tito’s legacy has even been represented in an extremly bad light by some of the politicians currently in power.

My grandma is definitely the biggest Tito fan I know. Coming from a “partisan family”, she has always appreciated his role in the partisan/antifascist mouvement.

Within general population, I think “yugonostalgia” does exist to some extent (I’d say it’s less present then in some other former Yugoslavian countries). Lot of people definitely regret the stability they enjoyed back then!

3 words to resume Balkans today?

Complicated. Corruption. Festive.

Do you have any person/VIP from the region you admire? Who and why?

I am not able to single out one person, but there are many people, throughout the region, worthy of our admiration. Civil right activists, journalists courageous enough to speak out about corruption and injustice, all those trying to change the society for the better, all those surviving on very little and keeping their heads up. Our mothers and grandmothers, of course.

A coutume/habit/particularity of Balkans you especially like. Dislike.

The greatest thing about the Balkans is probably the hospitality of its people. You only need to know somebody for about ten minutes to have a straightforward conversation with them. And sometimes, you only need a couple of drinks to become friends with somebody here.

Why did you take part to Balkans&beyond project? What did you learnt? What suprised you?

I was intrigued by the opportunity to report on a link between the present and the past in the Balkans. The topic is relevant per se, and it became even more interesting as I got to report from Slovenia, which is, awkwardy, the country I know the least in the region. I was surprised to discover this hidden side of Maribor.

How went the transnational ‘working together’?

Great! As I mentioned above, you only need about ten minutes to have an honest and open conversation with somebody from the Balkans :) So after a couple of days spent with Mirza and Natasa, I feel now as if we lived together ;)

Why did you choose to work on such story?

In other (former) yugoslavian countries, Slovenia was seen as a regional leader. It was the first country to proclaim independence from Yugoslavia; the first country that got into the EU; the destination country for many economical migrants from the region.

However, Slovenia has recently been going experiencing an important economical crisis as well. Our first idea was to explore the alternative initiative that young Slovenians developed to tackle the crisis. When we arrived in Maribor, the story of the city as a social laboratory for such new initiatives imposed itself to us.