Slovenia divided after vandalism of Josip Broz Tito's statue

A bronze statue of Yugoslav communist leader Josip Broz Tito has been decapitated in the Slovenian industrial town of Velenje, reigniting debates over how the country remembers its communist past.

Police have detained a 49-year-old local man after a witness spotted him loading the statue's severed head into his car on 5 December, after having spent several preceding nights slowly sawing away at the head.

He faces criminal charges for destruction of cultural property, which carries a possible prison sentence of up to eight years, CE Report quotes The Slovenia Times.

A symbol of history and identity

The statue, more than six metres tall, was erected in the late 1970s and became a defining feature of Tito Square, the main square of a city that was once called Titovo Velenje (Tito's Velenje) in honour of the Yugoslav leader.

Velenje was at the time being transformed from a small mining village into a planned industrial town, attracting workers from across the federation. For many residents, the statue represents the city's industrial heritage and decades of multicultural coexistence.

The vandal admitted on social media that he acted for political reasons, echoing long-standing calls by conservatives that all communist-era monuments should be removed, in particular Tito's due to his brutal crackdowns on political opponents and mass killings post-WWII.

"Erecting and preserving monuments to Communism, National Socialism and Fascism is banned in many European countries ... Slovenia will have to take this step one day. I hope my act of protest against a blatant violation of constitutional and European principles will bring this step forward," he said.

Political reactions

Political leaders from the left side of the political spectrum framed the attack as an assault not only on a monument but on the town's identity, forged in the 20th century by workers who migrated from across the former Yugoslavia to staff the region's mines and factories.

Petra Bevc, head of the Freedom Movement's council group, said the vandalism "undermines the history of coexistence" on which the town was built. Zahid Babajić, chair of the local committee, called it an attack "on people and the community."

The Freedom Movement plans to request an extraordinary session of the municipal council to address what it describes as a pattern of politically motivated vandalism across the broader Šalek Valley.

Senior national officials also condemned the act. Luka Špoljar, chief of staff to the prime minister and a Velenje native, said vandalism was "not an expression of freedom but of impotence," arguing that political justification for such acts represented a "dangerous path" for Slovenia's public discourse.

Meanwhile, the vandal has received glowing coverage in conservative media outlets, with a TV station with national reach airing an interview with him, and praise on social media from conservative quarters.

Democratic Party (SDS) leader Janez Janša, a former dissident who has spent decades fighting against the remnants of communism in the country, said in a post on X that Slovenia was probably the only country in the EU that still had monuments to single-party dictatorship.

"It is sad that brave individuals must take care of basic democratic hygiene, a task that state and local authorities should perform," he said.

The statement prompted questions about broader political motives, leading Velenje's social democratic Mayor Peter Dermol to declare that "it is patently clear that the SDS is behind this".

The municipality said the statue would be restored by the middle of December. Officials also plan to introduce regulations to strengthen protection of all monuments in the city, regardless of the era or the person they commemorate.

Photo courtesy of the City of Velenje