Bandić: I have returned Jabuka to the youth and it is out of the question for it to disappear; Viduka: Zagreb wants to evict us

Zagreb’s mayor Milan Bandić stated on Wednesday that it is out of the question for the Music Club Jabuka to disappear, whose terrace workers have again begun to demolish on the orders of the City, but he also reiterated that the people running the club can change, who in turn inform him that the City continues the illegal devastation of the club and wants to evict them from Jabuka.

– Jabuka must remain regardless of who is leading today and who tomorrow. Moreover, I have returned Jabuka to the youth and it is out of the question for Jabuka to disappear, but the people who fulfill more or less obligations to the City can change. If someone has not fulfilled their obligations, they must leave the space, and Jabuka will continue, said Mayor Bandić to Hina.

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He also said that more detailed information about Jabuka can be obtained from the City Office for Property, as they rent public space. In the courtyard of the cult Zagreb club Jabuka, just a few days before its 50th birthday, excavators and workers accompanied by security guards began demolishing part of the terrace on Tuesday, which they started in December 2016.

The club manager Marin Viduka Stiv told Hina that the illegal devastation continued on Wednesday. He stated that on Tuesday workers demolished the stage on the terrace of Jabuka with cables, and on Wednesday continued the devastation on the orders of the City of Zagreb and in cooperation with the security company Bilić-Erić. He emphasized that all this is happening simultaneously while two lawsuits related to eviction from 2016 and a break-in into private premises are being resolved in court.

Viduka: Instead of Jabuka celebrating 50 years, the City wants to evict us

– Instead of celebrating the 50-year-long tradition of the Music Club Jabuka, the City of Zagreb wants to evict us. The case is being handled without a court decision or any competent institution, which is outrageous, emphasized Viduka.

Regarding the City of Zagreb’s claims about debts, he said they have no basis, as Jabuka at the end of 2016, when it received a written eviction order, had no debts to anyone. He compared his case to the eviction case of the Saloon nightclub.

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Viduka also stated that club representatives called the Zagreb police for intervention on Tuesday and warned that workers, as they began to do at the end of 2016, are again illegally continuing the demolition of the terrace that the club has been using uninterruptedly for over 40 years. The police, upon arriving at the scene, determined that there were no elements of an offense in this case, but recorded all individuals involved in the demolition, he added.

Viduka: If someone else takes over the space, they can build anything, but Jabuka not

Regarding Bandić’s comment that Jabuka will not disappear, but that the people running the club can change, he said he was astonished when he heard it, warning that if someone else takes over that space, they can build anything there, but not Jabuka. Due to the entire situation, representatives of Jabuka called on the Ministry of Culture to protect this cult Zagreb club.

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Otherwise, when in December 2016 workers broke in, and security guards closed the club’s terrace due to work on the nearby elementary school that shares a wall with the club, the mayor said that the club would not be closed, but that it could happen that the club is not run by the same person as before, stating that “Jabuka has withered because it is poorly managed.” A similar situation occurred with representatives of the “Museum of Cars Ferdinand Budicki,” to whom Bandić also stated that this institution would not be closed, but it could happen that it is not run by the current manager, that is, “the person who brought it to a poor state.”