Thursday 20 May 2010
*Protesters occupy Zagreb street and demand mayor's resignation* * * Around 4000 people have this evening marched to Zagreb City Council and demanded the resignation of mayor Milan Bandic over plans to build an entrance ramp to an underground car park in Zagreb's Varsavska Street pedestrian zone. Piling up suitcases outside the council building, the protestors demanded that the mayor pack his bags and find a new job. The protest marks the culmination of a dramatic week, in which work on the HOTO group's contested "Cvjetni arcade" development has been blocked by activists from Green Action and the Right to the City initiative and the site occupied. Eearly on Monday morning contractors for the City of Zagreb, acting in lieu of the private investor, HOTO group's contested "Cvjetni arcade" development erected a metal fence around the Varsavska Street - a public space soon to be privatized and turned into a entrywayan entrance ramp for the private investor's garageunderground car park. The entrance was blocked by activists in the morning, who were joined a They were prevented from further work by activists from Green Action and the Right to the City initiative blocking the entrance to the site. At around midday they were joined by a several hundred citizens residents who hammered on the fence and eventually pulled it down and occupied the area, camping out there in shifts ever since. Citizens Residents demonstrating at tonight's protest, who met in support of the occupation in Varsavska Street in even larger numbers on Tuesday this week, also welcomed the belated investigation by the state anti-corruption office USKOK of potential criminal liability in issuing the permits for the construction oftion of the "Cvjetni arcade" shopping centre, luxury flats and car park in the place of razed protected cultural heritage buildings, which involved the destruction of protected cultural heritage buildings.. The protestors have vowed to continue their occupation of Varsavska Street for as long as necessary to stop the project. -- nataša bodrožić slobodne veze/loose associations http://slobodneveze.wordpress.com/ tel: + 385 91 763 2983
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