Campaign “So that we can understand each other better” had as a goal the normalisation of use of Cyrillic script in both public and private sphere. This script has been created over centuries of interdependent processes of building culture and literacy of the Croatian, Serb and other peoples who have played a role in shaping the former Republic of Croatia. By stressing shared historic experience and similarity of the everyday lifestyle of all citizens in Croatian society, we intended to create an atmosphere of openness and dialogue. Of course, the scope of the campaign which promotes the use of the Cyrillic script is limited by the fact that it has been denoted as a symbol of the destruction and human suffering in the city of Vukovar, but also in all the other parts of Croatia affected by war in the 1991 — 1995 period. This limitation has a stronger political-psychological effect than our Constitution, Constitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities, decision of the Constitutional Court, ratification of the Framework Convention for the protection of national minorities, European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, and many other acts. Thus the very start of the campaign – a promotion of the Vukovar Statute in its Cyrillic version – caused reaction in line with the mentioned limitation. But another part of the process carried out through posts targeting on-line audience, caused many reactions that were quite opposite in tone, reflecting acceptance of humour as a legitimate basis from which to observe and criticise reality.

In the last part of the campaign, the emphasis was on the simple procedure of displaying billboards of candidates for Croatia’s presidential elections in the Cyrillic script. Throughout the entire campaign, but especially in this phase, we saw an unimaginative and customarily nationalist approach by a number of portals and other media. But our goal was certainly to improve the literacy of our citizens, especially those who are sending out such or similar written threats. On the other hand, it was important to encourage citizens who no longer want to put up with fear and confinement, regardless of their national affiliation, and who intend to study or encourage the study and application of the Cyrillic script.

The campaign has been designed based on the experience acquired during the campaign for the European elections, but it targeted a somewhat different audience and partly succeeded in its intentions, which certainly require far greater social-activist engagement and much more awareness in relevant institutions.