Dežulović: Grandma Pig – Society can do what Vesić does

While some defended Dežulović, stating that as a former resident of the Serbian capital who defended him many times in his columns, he had the right to express his opinion, others criticized him that as a Croat he could speak about Zagreb, not Belgrade, and some even They even called the famous journalist “unknown” who “wants to gain fame by spitting on Belgrade.”

Belgrade Deputy Mayor Goran Vesić did not refrain from the backlash, which prompted an “exchange of views” between him and Dežulović, and new reactions in the media and on social media.

The essence of Dežulović’s statement about Belgrade (he also said the same about his Split) is that it is no longer “his city” because “every idea of ​​the city has been systematically nullified in it”.

According to him, this idea was nullified by those who, with their urban and kitsch solutions, usurped Belgrade with “pseudo-urban plastic jewels”.

Belgrade Deputy Mayor Goran Vesić took to Facebook and claimed that Dežulović “sincerely hates Belgrade, fearing Eugene of Rastinjak” from Balzac’s novel “Uncle Gorio”.

The journalist also responded to him on Facebook, citing Balzac himself.

In a statement to our newspaper, Dežulović points out that he did not expect such a strong reaction to the interview, nor the reaction of Vesić.

– I certainly did not expect the outbreak of uncontrolled righteous anger from the Vice Mayor. As Mr. Vesić himself rightly pointed out, I am not a Belgrade citizen and I do not live in Belgrade, and I am not qualified for the expectations of the mayors of Belgrade and their deputies, nor do I have expectations of them: those expectations, therefore, the They have only people with a Belgrade address. If it met your expectations on this occasion, then I must point out without reservation that for such a serious European city, the expectations of its citizens are quite small, says Dežulović for Danas.

He adds that to draw a zebra on the asphalt and a public fight with a “third-class writer from a village with ten houses,” a serious metropolis “does not need an administrative and intellectual giant like Vesić, Grandma Pig could do that.”

– If you did not meet expectations with that, then your problem is not me: in that case, the respected Deputy Mayor faces a public fight with “third-class citizens of a town of one hundred thousand houses.” And they won’t be as far from me as I am. And I’m afraid he won’t deal with Honore de Balzac and literature – thinks Dežulović.

Croatian journalist Viktor Ivančić referred to Danas for Vesić’s attack on Dežulović, but also to statements about who we can make statements about in regards to nationality.

– I can say two things about this important topic. Low One: Fools always freak out when they come across the truth. Goran Vesić is a fool. Less than two: for those who think that Dežulović, being Croatian, would have to be careful how he talks about Belgrade and Serbia, I have important information: Boro is a bad Croatian. So I draw two conclusions: Boro is not Croatian, like me after all, and Vesić is a fool. By the way, the principle that good Croatians from the Serbian perspective can shit only in Croatia and its cities, and vice versa, that good Serbs from the Croatian perspective can shit only in Serbia and its cities, is terrible for me. As a Yugoslav, I advocate that we all shit ourselves, freely, generously, without restraints or restrictions. With indignation, I reject the idea of ​​limiting my contempt at the national level – noted Ivančić.

The journalist and writer Miljenko Jergović estimates for our newspaper that serious problems for a city, a country or a person begin at the moment when a “stranger” – even if he is known – is denied the right to comment on a journalist , man, citizen, “famous” said city, country or man.

– And Belgrade has become a city? When I hear and see Mr. Vesić and those who would defend Belgrade from the “unknown” Dežulović, it seems to me that Belgrade has become something much smaller and poorer than the city. But when I hear and see all those Belgrade inhabitants, that is, all those people who live in Belgrade every day and who will choose Dežulović’s Belgrade between Vesić’s Belgrade and Dežulović’s, it seems to me that Belgrade is a city big and wide. Then it all depends on the point of view – says Jergović.

“Trees and stones” to Dežulović’s statement that Belgrade is “just a slightly bigger city, Dubai for the poor or Jagodina for the rich” was first condemned on Twitter by Belgrade writer Dušan Nedeljković, using bad words.

However, as he explains to Danas, he reacted with affection, “to the first dance”, without having read the entire interview first.

He emphasizes that he has known Dežulović for a long time and that it is now clear to him that in the interview he spoke of “radical” Belgrade, that is, of what the progressives of the Serbian capital did.

He adds that he regrets that “Vesić, Vučićević and the like” misused or quoted his tweet and that those Dežulović spoke about are now using it for their everyday political purposes.

– I wanted to finish that story because I recognized that an orgy of rightists would follow. However, in my opinion, the phenomenon is that Dežulović was defended from me by those whom he “called” who were guilty of the fall of Belgrade. Intellectuals who admired his activism and writing during wars. Boris must know that the city is its inhabitants. It was not targeting buildings but people. And there is a mistake – says Nedeljković.

According to him, Belgrade is a living organism, the only city in Europe with more than two millennia that does not have a house more than 180 years old, “the European capital that is most often besieged 40 times in history, and that is still growing sometimes by demographic necessity, sometimes by the logic of capital “. both are present and the truth is that worrying about quality of life is not essential. “

“The city is not made up of giraffes, but of people”

“Belgrade, of course, is no longer my city, ‘my London’ or ‘our Berlin’ of the eighties. And no, let’s face it, Split is no longer my city, so when I write that, it jumps on me selling a pathetic nostalgia, without realizing that it is not about that: it is in the nature of the city to change, change is the very definition of the city, but also ‘my Split’ or ‘my Belgrade’ of the eighties were foreign cities for the fetishes of the people of Split and of the old Belgraders. It’s about something else: that Belgrade just isn’t a city anymore, it’s just a slightly bigger city, Dubai for the poor or Jagodina for the rich. It’s about the fact that every idea of ​​the city was systematically nullified in Belgrade, and not just by that monstrous fake Baron Stefan Munchausen on a cannonball in front of the train station, the musty and rugged provincial Waterfront and other gems of pseudo-urban plastic, which makes Belgrade a metropolis. much like that Palmina giraffe made Jagodina a metropolis. I mean, the city is not made up of giraffes, but of people, “Dežulović said, among other things, in an interview with Nedeljnik.

Branko Rosić: phrases taken out of context

The author of the interview with Boris Dežulović in Nedeljnik, journalist Branko Rosić, told Danas that he was surprised by the negative reaction to the interview and that at no point did he think that his interlocutor was speaking in a bad context about Belgrade or Belgraders, but on those who usurped it. your urban solutions.

– Everything is taken out of context. It was as if my question was “What do you think of Belgrade?” And his answer was a city. And before that, a man says that I don’t care about Austria-Hungary, Serbia or Croatia. Anyone who has read Dežulović knows that he was “operated” by geopolitics. “I am interested in a living man,” was always his attitude, he said in an interview. When he was a teenager, he came to Belgrade, lived there for a while and said “Belgrade is no longer my city, and neither is Split.” And you have every right to say that – says Rosić.

Remember that Dežulović was shot in the 1990s, attacked in Split because he was defending Belgrade and now he is insulted by those who know nothing about him.

– We are a burdened people. We don’t look at our ripped underpants and the fact that we have nothing to put on a plate, but we take care of Dežulović over the weekend. It seems that it is easier to follow someone else’s life than to see how to change and improve your own – says Rosić.

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