At the end of July this year, with the presence of city and republican leaders (and the conspicuous absence of Mayor Aleksandar Šapić), a sign with the inscription "Egyptian Street" was unveiled in New Belgrade. Thus, the decision of the city assembly adopted in September 2022 to name a street in honor of Egypt in the territory of the city municipality of Novi Beograd came to life. The immediate reason for making this decision was the initiative of the Egyptian embassy in Belgrade to name a street that would evoke, strengthen and deepen cooperation and friendly relations between the two countries.
The original idea was to name a street after the former Egyptian president Gamel Abdel Nasser, but it was later changed, so an initiative to name a street came before the competent City Commission for Monuments and Names of Squares and Streets, and later before the City Assembly. "Egyptian". The opposition was expressly against this decision and did not vote for it. Here's why.
The threat of the tenants of Zemunska street
In the materials that the councilors received a week before that September session, there was also a proposal for a decision on the allocation of a street name in the territory of the city municipality of New Belgrade, which stated: "The name of Zemunska Street is changed and a new name is determined - Egipatska Street." In the Explanation of this decision, it is stated that it was made at the initiative of the Egyptian embassy, and that the consent of the competent Commission for Monuments and Names of Squares and Streets was obtained for the proposed solution.
However, nothing has been said about why exactly Zemunska Street should bear this new name, whether it is of any symbolic importance for Serbian-Egyptian friendship and what the residents of this long street in New Belgrade think about this change. to Tošin Bunar Street, then continue to Vojvođanska Street. And then the tenants of Zemunska Street spoke up.
A few days before the session, the committee groups in the Belgrade Assembly received a letter, i.e. a petition from 424 residents of Zemunska Street, in which they say that they heard that the City Assembly will decide on the renaming of their street and that, if this is true, they are against it .
Not disputing the need for a street in Belgrade to be named "Egypatska", the tenants said that a new and much bigger street should bear that name, not Zemunska. The letter also stated that Zemunska Street has had its name since 1930, that it is the oldest street in New Belgrade, that the liberation of Zemun at the end of World War II also started in that direction, as well as that a tournament has been held on the street for several decades. in indoor soccer called "Zemunska Street Tournament". Moreover, Zemunska has already changed its name several times, but each time the old name was returned by the will of the tenants.
In the end, the tenants concluded that they will defend their right to live in Zemunska Street by all means.
Even – odd or two in one
After this foul, and probably wanting to show that it cares about the interests of the citizens, the city government submitted a new, amended proposal of its decision to the councilors at the session of the City Assembly. In it, it was written that the name of Zemunska Street was changed to Egipatska, but that along the cadastral parcel kp 1478 KO Novi Beograd, a street was determined which was assigned the name Zemunska Street. However, in the Explanation of this decision, it is stated that the name "Zemunska Street" will remain in the residential part (of that street), "which in a spatial sense would include residential buildings with odd house numbers".
In other words, according to that solution, one side of the street should have been called Zemunska, while the other, where there are supposedly no residential buildings, would have been called Egipatska. Behold the lucidity! Behold an ingenious solution - two streets in one.
Anyone who has passed through Zemunska Street at least once knows that there are residential buildings on both sides, that is, on the side where the numbers are even. Since it seems that the representatives of the city government understood this during the session, we heard an even more insane explanation from them - the entire even side of Zemunska will not be renamed to Egypt, but only that part of it where there are no residential buildings.
So, the proposal is to change the name of one part of one side of Zemunska street to Egipatska street. I don't need to explain how absurd this proposal is. The opposition did not support it, but the government certainly voted for it and it entered into force.
Board for nowhere
Now a logical (if there is a place for logic here) question arises: where is Egiptska Street located? According to the text of the decision, the whole of Zemunska should have become Egyptian, except for plot 1478, which is located next to Zemunska street, on its odd side. According to the letter of explanation, it is only the even side of Zemunska, and according to what we heard from the city authorities at the meeting, it is only one part of that side. Planplus is certainly not helpful, since Egiptska is drawn on it as one side piece in the middle of the odd-numbered side of Zemunska Street.
It seemed that all the dilemmas should be resolved by the sign that says "Egyptian Street" and which city leaders ceremonially opened at the end of July. However, it only brings new confusion. The board was placed at the end of Zemunska Street (on its opposite side), or rather behind it, at the place where Tošin Bunar Street had already begun. The residential buildings located in the direction behind the sign, on both sides, belong to Tošin Bunar Street. Since the intersection of Zemunska Street and Tošin Bunar Street is actually a crossroad, it is crossed on both sides by a small side street where there are also several buildings of different purposes. However, they all belong to Tošin Bunar Street, not Zemunska Street.
In other words, where Egypt Street should begin, Toshin Bunar Street actually begins, so Egypt Street has nothing to do with it. And apart from that one board, nothing else exists.
Logical solutions
Street names are important and they are not just assigned.
My late uncle, who worked at IMR, told me that at the end of the 1980s, the then Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak visited them at the factory in Rakovica. He says that the workers came out to the factory circle to greet him, that he received a big round of applause, that he came up to shake hands with them and talk to them, and that the whole event remained in his fond and pleasant memory. Well, if the city authorities lacked the idea of which street to name Egiptska, and if they wanted to avoid residential buildings, they could have named a part of the long street of Patriarch Dimitrije, where the IMR is located, Egiptska. There are mostly industrial and not residential buildings in it, and because of the mentioned visit there is also a certain symbolic connection with Egypt (which is definitely not in Zemunska).
Another street connected with the events of the era of the Non-Aligned Movement could have been used for that. After all, some newly created street could have been called Egyptska. Anything is better than the farcical name change of one part of one side of an already existing street, which should be embodied by a ceremoniously unveiled sign for nowhere.
And yet, this behavior of the city authorities should not surprise us at all. This is in the spirit of the long-standing manner of progressive governance both in Belgrade and in Serbia. This example shows all the scourge of their "work in the public interest": proposing decisions without any consultation with those they concern, changing decisions on the fly, carelessly and arrogantly insisting at all costs on senseless and harmful solutions, procrastination friendly relations with other countries, opposition to it.
The friendship between Serbia and Egypt is important and it deserves a street that is a symbol of the union of the two peoples and that leads somewhere, not a non-existent street, no matter how much the progressives are convinced that even non-existent streets lead somewhere. They can only lead them to defeat in the next city elections, and they will be left with Potemkin boards screeching in the wind.
The author is a member of the Democratic Party in the Belgrade City Assembly
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