Neo-Nazism in Croatia
Encyclopedia
Far right in Croatia refers to any manifestation of far-right politics in the Republic of Croatia. Individuals and groups in Croatia that employ far-right politics are most often associated with the historical Ustaše
movement, hence they have connections to Neo-Nazism
and neo-fascism
. That World War II
political movement was an extremist organization at the time supported by the German Nazis
and the Italian Fascists
. The association with the Ustaše has been called Neo-Ustashism by Slavko Goldstein
.
The common perception is that the far right includes people who were either involved with the Independent State of Croatia
(NDH) during World War II; sympathizers; and people who utilise their symbol
ism. The far right mainly arose from a combination of the residual hatred from the Yugoslav wars
and Croatian nationalism
.
Pro-Ustaša symbols and actions have been restricted by law in Croatia since 2003. The most common venue for expressing these beliefs is graffiti
.
, the Communist authorities pursued a strict set of policies which could be deemed as a form of denazification
, only more similar to the Soviet style than to the American style. People who collaborated with the Ustaše
were often court-martialled at the end of the war, and the Bleiburg massacre
was committed.
Long after the war was over, there continued to be trials against suspected collaborators. In the 1980s, Andrija Artuković
was extradited by the US and prosecuted in SR Croatia where he died in a prison hospital.
The secret service exercised harsh control over citizens with links to the Ustaše or just Croatian nationalism. The UDBA
continuously monitored Croatian diaspora
, and was implicated in numerous assassinations, notably that of Bruno Bušić
in 1978.
, or to revisit the status of Croatia as a member of the winning side of that war.
Nevertheless, the introduction of the freedom of speech
enabled public expression of far-right politics. The new mainstream politics showed significantly more courtesy to the Ustaše for their desire to make Croatia independent, but they were neither rehabilitated nor explicitly banned. Subsequently, no new laws were passed in the 1990s that specifically targeted the issues of Nazism
or fascism
. The primary reason for the disregard of past fascism in Croatia has been a lack of priority and care taken by the Croatian public and the mainstream politics towards the issue, because numerous other issues plagued the country at the time. The late president of Croatia
, Franjo Tuđman, who had been a Partisan general who had fought the Ustaše, became a champion of reconciliation (Croatian pomirenje or pomirba), whereby Croats of all political views should unite against the shared threat from Serbia
. This had the effect of also bringing pro-Ustaše Croats into the fray, their philosophy and ideas no longer taboo. Tuđman publicly stated that the Ustaša state was an expression of the desire of Croats to regain their independence after centuries. Such a notion could be considered true in view of Croatia's long historical struggle for independence, but does not give enough consideration to the puppet-state status of the NDH. After the war more anti-fascist-inclined people were no longer willing to set aside political differences with the more fascist-inclined.
At the time, Croatia was often accused of ignoring the crimes committed by the World War II
-era fascist Ustaša regime, and of tolerating the symbols and the activities of individuals sympathetic to that regime. This has led to criticism of Croatia, particularly among Serbs
. This was exacerbated with war-time propaganda for the Yugoslav wars
. The antagonism between the Croats
and the Serbs
grew, and had become widespread by the time the Croatian War of Independence
had started. The Croatian-Serbian animosity during the Yugoslav wars was viewed by some as a rivalry between the "Ustaša" and the "Chetnik", even if both of these World War II-era organizations did not actually exist at the time. To some extent, it is a consequence of wartime propaganda
, in the course of which such moralistic debasement is common.
In the absence of a specific policy or laws against it, instances of pro-Ustaše sentiment and hate speech
were rarely sanctioned, to the dismay of the left-leaning
public, as well the Serbs of Croatia
who were the most common targets.
Among the organizations formed during wartime which were most commonly associated with neo-Ustashism was the Croatian Defence Forces
(Hrvatske obrambene snage, HOS), which emerged as the de facto paramilitary wing of the Croatian Party of Rights
. Their symbols included dressing in black, at the time widely perceived to be reminiscent of blackshirts
, and using the phrase Za dom spremni. These units, however, quickly fell out of favor with the Croatian authorities and were eliminated through more or less violent means before the end of the first phase of the war in Croatia.
The far-right part of the Croatian political scene in the 1990s was fragmented between various right-wing political parties: primarily Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ) and Croatian Party of Rights
(HSP), as well as other smaller parties such as the Croatian Christian Democratic Union
(HKDU), the Croatian Party of Rights 1861
(HSP1861) and Croatian Pure Party of Rights
(HČSP).
, brought more focus to anti-fascist stances and veterans groups. Remembrance ceremonies at the site of Jasenovac concentration camp
resumed, with support from the highest levels of government, including the right-wing HDZ under Ivo Sanader
.
The World War II war crimes committed by Croats had been processed in Yugoslavia, but some cases had protracted long enough to become the responsibility of the modern-day Croatian authorities. In 1999, Croatia extradited Dinko Šakić
from Argentina
, one of the commanders of the Jasenovac concentration camp, and he was subsequently tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison, at the time the highest penalty under Croatian law.
The conservative parties such as the Croatian Party of Rights
(HSP) and the Croatian Democratic Union
(HDZ) permeated in their support for extreme forms of nationalism and far-right ideas. This has been particularly apparent in the latter, which has a large membership and voter base and appeals to a broad spectrum of right-wing voters.
The two-time prime minister Ivo Sanader
of HDZ came to power after promoting himself as an avid advocate of Croatian general Mirko Norac
in 2001. The far-right position with regard to war crimes committed in the Croatian war of independence has been one of a general denial - the Croatian side is seen as inherently not responsible for any crimes because its role in the war is one of a victim. This view is the extreme form of the position taken by the Supreme Court of Croatia, which allows "pursuit of a legitimate goal of defending one's country against an armed aggression" to be considered a mitigating circumstance in war crimes trials. In general, with respect to processing war crimes, the Croatian Government (mostly under HDZ) has had a rather spotty record for processing those committed by Croats. Pressure from the European Union
helped rectify this. After Sanader and HDZ were elected in 2003, Norac was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Croatia has also been cooperating with the ICTY
in the legal prosecution of all war criminals, which has included Croatian officers, notably Ante Gotovina
.
Parties like the Croatian Party of Rights
which are most commonly associated with Ustašism generally aren't able to attract support from more than a few percent of the population (HSP coalition won 6.4% of the national popular vote in the 2003 election
and 3.5% in the 2007 election
). In recent times, the HSP's image of "pro-Ustaša" was repetitively shunned by its leaders in an attempt to sway more votes.
On July 11, 2003, the Ivica Račan
coalition government passed amendments to the penal code which outlawed hate speech
, in a new section titled Praising fascist, Nazi and other totalitarian states and ideologies or promotion of racism and xenophobia.
The law is not perfectly applied, evidenced by the examples of regular public display of Ustasha memorabilia by the group "Hrvatski domobran" from Zadar that only recently started to get sanctioned by the police.
On June 20, 2006 Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader
issued a message ahead of the Anti-Fascist Struggle Day (an official holiday in Croatia), in which he rejected extremism and radicalism, and
said that "antifascism was a commitment weaved into the foundations of independent, democratic Croatia".
Croatia has no laws against historical revisionism
or Holocaust denial
. This can be attributed to the change of political system, and the change in the entire system of values as the country became independent. Revisionism was not frowned upon because priority was placed on the re-evaluation of history as recorded during the Communist era, which was therefore deemed almost implicitly tainted, because it systematically omitted or misrepresented issues related to what was perceived to be Croatian nationalism
. On the other hand, the revision of history books often went too far in making them increasingly focused on Croatian national issues, even with far-right interpretations of various World War II events. The re-examination of the number of victims of the Independent State of Croatia, particularly the Jasenovac concentration camp
, was fairly common, as well as fairly controversial. The topic as such was reasonably relevant, and statistical research such as that by Vladimir Žerjavić
indicated serious flaws with Yugoslav data, whose sources had been kept secret until 1989, but in an atmosphere of war, this was an incendiary issue associated with the far right.
, Roma and homosexuals.
The conflation of modern and obsolete nationalist themes sometimes produces bizarre inconsistencies, as shown at picture on the right: at the time when the ICTY wanted Croatian general Janko Bobetko
, the right-wing part of the public was adamant in its demands to prevent that, and some extremist painted graffiti saying so, together with neo-fascist symbols. At the same time, Bobetko was quite clearly not a neo-fascist himself, because his family was killed by the Ustaše, and he fought against them.
, numerous monuments erected in honour of the Partisans
have been damaged or destroyed throughout the country, and these incidents were generally not censured by the authorities at all. Furthermore, the devastation of World War II partisan monuments also often extended to those erected in honour of civilian victims of war, also with little or no intervention from the police. The defacements occurred during a period when communist parties lost power in much of Eastern Europe.
had been named the "Square of the victims of fascism" (Trg žrtava fašizma) because during World War II, over sixteen thousand people had been deported via the square to concentration camps. In the early 1990s, this square was renamed to "Square of great Croats" (Trg hrvatskih velikana). This decision was later reverted in December 2000 during Milan Bandić
's mayoralty of Zagreb
.
In several Croatian cities, streets were renamed after Mile Budak
, a prominent Ustaša ideologist, on the basis that he was otherwise a poet. The moves to hail Budak this way, were supported by 120 university professors, scholars, and other public figures. Conversely, the leftist newspaper Feral Tribune
regularly satirized the Mile Budak streets, and its journalists explicitly criticized this trend.
The renaming of streets and squares after Budak (and other Ustaša-related people) has mostly been reversed by recent governments. In 2003, Ivo Sanader
's government decided to finally deal with the issue which resulted in a decision to rename all the streets bearing Budak's name. In 2004, a plaque commemorating Budak's birth in the village of Sveti Rok was removed by the same authorities. Numerous local authorities however refused to follow up with the renames or delayed them.
In the world of popular culture
, the pop/folk/rock singer Marko Perković
(Thompson) caused a scandal when the media obtained a copy song Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara
allegedly sung by him. Perković was reportedly not prosecuted for this due to uncertainty as to whether it was really he who sang the song. He has appeared on public television, and can still sometimes be seen on it, even though mainstream TV stations do tend to avoid him in order to avoid controversy. His concerts regularly attract the far-right crowd.
It has been widely alleged that he achieved such large attendances with the support of right-wing political organizations who helped rally people to the concerts. He has been banned from performing in Netherlands
and other states that do not allow display of Nazi symbols and celebration of the Holocaust
, although his group (Thompson
) performed at SS Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic church in Manhattan
in November 2007, despite well-reported controversy, after the Archdiocese refused to order the engagement's backers to cancel the production.
Thompson himself has denied he has anything to do with Nazism numerous times, and called the campaign against him cheap propaganda, saying he was merely a proud Croatian.
. The song contained also the NDH motto "Za dom spremni".
Simon Wiesenthal Center
director Efraim Zuroff
complained to the Croatian president Stjepan Mesić
about the funeral of Dinko Šakić
, one of the leaders of the army of the Independent State of Croatia, who died on July 2008. At that funeral, Croatian Dominican priest pater Vjekoslav Lasić held a speech in which he said that "the court that indicted Dinko Šakić indicted Croatia and Croatians", and that "every Croat should be proud of Šakić's name".
symbols or characteristics.
There are instances of explicit anti-Serb hate speech in sports: the phrase Srbe na vrbe! (meaning "hang Serbs on the willow trees!") is frequently chanted by Croatian football hooligans. The same phrase appears in graffiti
.
Ultranationalist Croats use to shout the slogan "Kill the Serb" frequently during sporting events. According to some Croatian media, a group of youths chanted this during a concert by Marko Perković Thompson.
In January 2006, the Ustasha song "Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara" was played publicly during the interval of an international club volleyball match. Officials later attributed the incident to a single individual, and the police did not intervene.
During a friendly match between Croatia
and Italy
in Livorno
in 2006, a small group of Croatian fans stood in a swastika
formation in response to Italians fans waving communist
flags; UEFA
penalized the Croatian Football Federation
for the incident.
In 2007, Croatian football fans formed the letter U in a stadium during a match in Bosnia.
In October 2007, the Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija
reported that NK Imotski
's official clothing items featured Ustaša
-related symbols (The letter U and the Independent State of Croatia
-resembling coat of arms
inside the letter. That was, in fact, the logo of the club's leading sponsor, the edile company gUj (meaning "Gojko Und Jure"). Some historians and critics claim the symbols display is an open praising of the Ustaše. The club's president, Nediljko Tolo, said: "As long as the sponsor finances our club, we will carry those symbols on our dresses". In early November 2007, the Croatian Second League Association announced that NK Imotski
violated FIFA
, Croatian Football Federation
rules and laws of the Republic of Croatia. NK Imotski had to end a sponsorship deal with gUj until the company changes its logo. NK Imotski had to find new uniforms for the players and remove all gUj advertisements around the stadium.
In November 2007, it was reported that members of the Hajduk Split supporters' group, Torcida Split
, were wearing black T-shirt
s featuring the words "Hajduk jugend" (alluding to Hitlerjugend
) in Fraktur and an eagle
atop Hajduk's logo (resembling a Nazi Party symbol). The T-shirts were also being sold on Torcida's website. Stipe Lekić, the secretary of Torcida said to reporters that "Torcida has always been leaning to the right", but rejecting accusations that the T-shirts have connections with Nazism
. He said that he was wearing the T-shirt because he liked the symbols.
Also in November 2007, a Swastika
appeared on Osijek
's Gradski vrt
football field, together with the slogan "Play, fags!". That was, reportedly done before the match with Međimurje. NK Osijek
's and their Kohorta fan association condemned the acts.
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
movement, hence they have connections to Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism
Neo-Nazism consists of post-World War II social or political movements seeking to revive Nazism or some variant thereof.The term neo-Nazism can also refer to the ideology of these movements....
and neo-fascism
Neo-Fascism
Neo-fascism is a post–World War II ideology that includes significant elements of fascism. The term neo-fascist may apply to groups that express a specific admiration for Benito Mussolini and Italian Fascism or any other fascist leader/state...
. That World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
political movement was an extremist organization at the time supported by the German Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
and the Italian Fascists
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
. The association with the Ustaše has been called Neo-Ustashism by Slavko Goldstein
Slavko Goldstein
Slavko Goldstein is a Croatian Jewish historian, writer and publisher.Goldstein family was originally from Tuzla, but Slavko spend his childhood in Karlovac wherehis father Ivo was notable bookseller...
.
The common perception is that the far right includes people who were either involved with the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
(NDH) during World War II; sympathizers; and people who utilise their symbol
Symbol
A symbol is something which represents an idea, a physical entity or a process but is distinct from it. The purpose of a symbol is to communicate meaning. For example, a red octagon may be a symbol for "STOP". On a map, a picture of a tent might represent a campsite. Numerals are symbols for...
ism. The far right mainly arose from a combination of the residual hatred from the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
and Croatian nationalism
Croatian nationalism
Croatian nationalism is the nationalism of Croats or of Croatian culture. It arose in the 19th century in response to Magyarization of Croat territories under Hungarian rule, especially under the influence of Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik,...
.
Pro-Ustaša symbols and actions have been restricted by law in Croatia since 2003. The most common venue for expressing these beliefs is graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
.
Croatian far right during Yugoslavia
At the end of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Communist authorities pursued a strict set of policies which could be deemed as a form of denazification
Denazification
Denazification was an Allied initiative to rid German and Austrian society, culture, press, economy, judiciary, and politics of any remnants of the National Socialist ideology. It was carried out specifically by removing those involved from positions of influence and by disbanding or rendering...
, only more similar to the Soviet style than to the American style. People who collaborated with the Ustaše
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
were often court-martialled at the end of the war, and the Bleiburg massacre
Bleiburg massacre
The Bleiburg massacre, which also encompasses Operation Keelhaul is a term encompassing events that took place during mid-May 1945 near the Carinthian town of Bleiburg, itself some four kilometres from the Austrian-Slovenian border....
was committed.
Long after the war was over, there continued to be trials against suspected collaborators. In the 1980s, Andrija Artuković
Andrija Artukovic
Andrija Artuković was a Croatian politician and a member of the Ustaše movement. Artuković was convicted of war crimes committed against minorities in the Independent State of Croatia during World War II...
was extradited by the US and prosecuted in SR Croatia where he died in a prison hospital.
The secret service exercised harsh control over citizens with links to the Ustaše or just Croatian nationalism. The UDBA
UDBA
The Department of State Security was the secret police organization of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.Although it operated with more restraint than other secret...
continuously monitored Croatian diaspora
Croatian diaspora
Croatian diaspora refers to the Croatian communities that have formed outside Croatia.Estimates on its size are only approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalization, but estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers between a third and a half of the total number of...
, and was implicated in numerous assassinations, notably that of Bruno Bušić
Bruno Bušic
Ante Bruno Bušić was a Croatian writer and critic of Yugoslav communism. He was one of the best-known victims of UDBA killing.Bušić was born in the village of Vinjani Donji near Imotski...
in 1978.
Early independent political scene
In the process of the breakup of Yugoslavia, Croatia gained independence from the SFR Yugoslavia in the 1990s. The modern Croatia was formed long after World War II was over, and aside from occasional exceptions, there was no desire by the Croatian political elite to associate the new country with the former Independent State of CroatiaIndependent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
, or to revisit the status of Croatia as a member of the winning side of that war.
Nevertheless, the introduction of the freedom of speech
Freedom of speech
Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used...
enabled public expression of far-right politics. The new mainstream politics showed significantly more courtesy to the Ustaše for their desire to make Croatia independent, but they were neither rehabilitated nor explicitly banned. Subsequently, no new laws were passed in the 1990s that specifically targeted the issues of Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
or fascism
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
. The primary reason for the disregard of past fascism in Croatia has been a lack of priority and care taken by the Croatian public and the mainstream politics towards the issue, because numerous other issues plagued the country at the time. The late president of Croatia
President of Croatia
The President of Croatia , officially styled the President of the Republic represents the Republic of Croatia in the country and abroad as the head of state, maintains the regular and coordinated operation and stability of the national government system, and safeguards the independence and...
, Franjo Tuđman, who had been a Partisan general who had fought the Ustaše, became a champion of reconciliation (Croatian pomirenje or pomirba), whereby Croats of all political views should unite against the shared threat from Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
. This had the effect of also bringing pro-Ustaše Croats into the fray, their philosophy and ideas no longer taboo. Tuđman publicly stated that the Ustaša state was an expression of the desire of Croats to regain their independence after centuries. Such a notion could be considered true in view of Croatia's long historical struggle for independence, but does not give enough consideration to the puppet-state status of the NDH. After the war more anti-fascist-inclined people were no longer willing to set aside political differences with the more fascist-inclined.
At the time, Croatia was often accused of ignoring the crimes committed by the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
-era fascist Ustaša regime, and of tolerating the symbols and the activities of individuals sympathetic to that regime. This has led to criticism of Croatia, particularly among Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
. This was exacerbated with war-time propaganda for the Yugoslav wars
Yugoslav wars
The Yugoslav Wars were a series of wars, fought throughout the former Yugoslavia between 1991 and 1995. The wars were complex: characterized by bitter ethnic conflicts among the peoples of the former Yugoslavia, mostly between Serbs on the one side and Croats and Bosniaks on the other; but also...
. The antagonism between the Croats
Croats
Croats are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have...
and the Serbs
Serbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
grew, and had become widespread by the time the Croatian War of Independence
Croatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
had started. The Croatian-Serbian animosity during the Yugoslav wars was viewed by some as a rivalry between the "Ustaša" and the "Chetnik", even if both of these World War II-era organizations did not actually exist at the time. To some extent, it is a consequence of wartime propaganda
Propaganda
Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position so as to benefit oneself or one's group....
, in the course of which such moralistic debasement is common.
In the absence of a specific policy or laws against it, instances of pro-Ustaše sentiment and hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
were rarely sanctioned, to the dismay of the left-leaning
Left-wing politics
In politics, Left, left-wing and leftist generally refer to support for social change to create a more egalitarian society...
public, as well the Serbs of Croatia
Serbs of Croatia
Višeslav of Serbia, a contemporary of Charlemagne , ruled the Županias of Neretva, Tara, Piva, Lim, his ancestral lands. According to the Royal Frankish Annals , Duke of Pannonia Ljudevit Posavski fled, during the Frankish invasion, from his seat in Sisak to the Serbs in western Bosnia, who...
who were the most common targets.
Among the organizations formed during wartime which were most commonly associated with neo-Ustashism was the Croatian Defence Forces
Croatian Defence Forces
The Croatian Defence Forces was the military arm of the Croatian Party of Rights from 1991 to 1992 during the first stages of the Yugoslav wars....
(Hrvatske obrambene snage, HOS), which emerged as the de facto paramilitary wing of the Croatian Party of Rights
Croatian Party of Rights
The Croatian Party of Rights is a right-wing political party in Croatia. The "right" in the party's name refer to the idea of Croatian national and ethnic rights that the party has vowed to protect since its founding in the 19th century...
. Their symbols included dressing in black, at the time widely perceived to be reminiscent of blackshirts
Blackshirts
The Blackshirts were Fascist paramilitary groups in Italy during the period immediately following World War I and until the end of World War II...
, and using the phrase Za dom spremni. These units, however, quickly fell out of favor with the Croatian authorities and were eliminated through more or less violent means before the end of the first phase of the war in Croatia.
The far-right part of the Croatian political scene in the 1990s was fragmented between various right-wing political parties: primarily Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
(HDZ) and Croatian Party of Rights
Croatian Party of Rights
The Croatian Party of Rights is a right-wing political party in Croatia. The "right" in the party's name refer to the idea of Croatian national and ethnic rights that the party has vowed to protect since its founding in the 19th century...
(HSP), as well as other smaller parties such as the Croatian Christian Democratic Union
Croatian Christian Democratic Union
Croatian Christian Democratic Union is a right wing political party in Croatia.It was founded in 1992 after the merger of Croatian Democratic Party and Croatian Christian Democratic Party ....
(HKDU), the Croatian Party of Rights 1861
Croatian Party of Rights 1861
Croatian Party of Rights 1861 is a right-wing political party in Croatia.It was founded in 1995 following the removal of Dobroslav Paraga from the leadership of Croatian Party of Rights and Paraga's unsuccessful attempts to revert this at courts...
(HSP1861) and Croatian Pure Party of Rights
Croatian Pure Party of Rights
Croatian Pure Party of Rights is a marginal far right political party in Croatia founded in 1904. The party claims to be an ideological descendant of the same-named right-wing historical party which was active in the early 20th century and which advocated the right to self-determination for...
(HČSP).
Post-war political scene
In recent times, mainstream Croatian politicians, such as Stjepan MesićStjepan Mesić
Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić is a Croatian politician and former President of Croatia. Before his ten-year presidential term between 2000 and 2010 he held the posts of Speaker of the Croatian Parliament , Prime Minister of Croatia , the last President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia , Secretary General...
, brought more focus to anti-fascist stances and veterans groups. Remembrance ceremonies at the site of Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II...
resumed, with support from the highest levels of government, including the right-wing HDZ under Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader |Split]]) is a Croatian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.Sanader obtained his education in comparative literature in Austria, where he also later worked in the 1980s. He worked as a journalist, in marketing, publishing and also as a private...
.
The World War II war crimes committed by Croats had been processed in Yugoslavia, but some cases had protracted long enough to become the responsibility of the modern-day Croatian authorities. In 1999, Croatia extradited Dinko Šakić
Dinko Šakic
Dinko Šakić was a convicted Croatian war criminal, an army leader of the fascist Independent State of Croatia , established under Third Reich and Italian tutelage, and commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II.-Biography:He was born in Studenci, in the Kingdom of Serbs,...
from Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
, one of the commanders of the Jasenovac concentration camp, and he was subsequently tried and sentenced to 20 years in prison, at the time the highest penalty under Croatian law.
The conservative parties such as the Croatian Party of Rights
Croatian Party of Rights
The Croatian Party of Rights is a right-wing political party in Croatia. The "right" in the party's name refer to the idea of Croatian national and ethnic rights that the party has vowed to protect since its founding in the 19th century...
(HSP) and the Croatian Democratic Union
Croatian Democratic Union
The Croatian Democratic Union is the main center-right political party in Croatia. It is the biggest and strongest individual Croatian party since independence of Croatia. The Christian democratic HDZ governed Croatia from 1990 to 2000 and, in partial coalition, from 2003...
(HDZ) permeated in their support for extreme forms of nationalism and far-right ideas. This has been particularly apparent in the latter, which has a large membership and voter base and appeals to a broad spectrum of right-wing voters.
The two-time prime minister Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader |Split]]) is a Croatian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.Sanader obtained his education in comparative literature in Austria, where he also later worked in the 1980s. He worked as a journalist, in marketing, publishing and also as a private...
of HDZ came to power after promoting himself as an avid advocate of Croatian general Mirko Norac
Mirko Norac
Mirko Norac is a former general of the Croatian Army. In 2003 he became the first Croatian Army general to be found guilty of war crimes by a Croatian court after he was transferred from The Hague...
in 2001. The far-right position with regard to war crimes committed in the Croatian war of independence has been one of a general denial - the Croatian side is seen as inherently not responsible for any crimes because its role in the war is one of a victim. This view is the extreme form of the position taken by the Supreme Court of Croatia, which allows "pursuit of a legitimate goal of defending one's country against an armed aggression" to be considered a mitigating circumstance in war crimes trials. In general, with respect to processing war crimes, the Croatian Government (mostly under HDZ) has had a rather spotty record for processing those committed by Croats. Pressure from the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
helped rectify this. After Sanader and HDZ were elected in 2003, Norac was prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Croatia has also been cooperating with the ICTY
International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia
The International Tribunal for the Prosecution of Persons Responsible for Serious Violations of International Humanitarian Law Committed in the Territory of the Former Yugoslavia since 1991, more commonly referred to as the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia or ICTY, is a...
in the legal prosecution of all war criminals, which has included Croatian officers, notably Ante Gotovina
Ante Gotovina
Ante Gotovina is a former Senior Corporal of the French Foreign Legion and former Lieutenant General of the Croatian Army who served in the Croatian War for Independence...
.
Parties like the Croatian Party of Rights
Croatian Party of Rights
The Croatian Party of Rights is a right-wing political party in Croatia. The "right" in the party's name refer to the idea of Croatian national and ethnic rights that the party has vowed to protect since its founding in the 19th century...
which are most commonly associated with Ustašism generally aren't able to attract support from more than a few percent of the population (HSP coalition won 6.4% of the national popular vote in the 2003 election
Croatian parliamentary election, 2003
-External links:*...
and 3.5% in the 2007 election
Croatian parliamentary election, 2007
Parliamentary elections to the Croatian Parliament were held on 25 November 2007 in Croatia and on 24 November and 25 November 2007 abroad. The campaign officially started on 3 November...
). In recent times, the HSP's image of "pro-Ustaša" was repetitively shunned by its leaders in an attempt to sway more votes.
On July 11, 2003, the Ivica Račan
Ivica Racan
Ivica Račan was a Croatian career politician, leader of the League of Communists of Croatia and later Social Democratic Party from 1989 to 2007...
coalition government passed amendments to the penal code which outlawed hate speech
Hate speech
Hate speech is, outside the law, any communication that disparages a person or a group on the basis of some characteristic such as race, color, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, nationality, religion, or other characteristic....
, in a new section titled Praising fascist, Nazi and other totalitarian states and ideologies or promotion of racism and xenophobia.
The law is not perfectly applied, evidenced by the examples of regular public display of Ustasha memorabilia by the group "Hrvatski domobran" from Zadar that only recently started to get sanctioned by the police.
On June 20, 2006 Croatian prime minister Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader |Split]]) is a Croatian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.Sanader obtained his education in comparative literature in Austria, where he also later worked in the 1980s. He worked as a journalist, in marketing, publishing and also as a private...
issued a message ahead of the Anti-Fascist Struggle Day (an official holiday in Croatia), in which he rejected extremism and radicalism, and
said that "antifascism was a commitment weaved into the foundations of independent, democratic Croatia".
Croatia has no laws against historical revisionism
Historical revisionism
In historiography, historical revisionism is the reinterpretation of orthodox views on evidence, motivations, and decision-making processes surrounding a historical event...
or Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial
Holocaust denial is the act of denying the genocide of Jews in World War II, usually referred to as the Holocaust. The key claims of Holocaust denial are: the German Nazi government had no official policy or intention of exterminating Jews, Nazi authorities did not use extermination camps and gas...
. This can be attributed to the change of political system, and the change in the entire system of values as the country became independent. Revisionism was not frowned upon because priority was placed on the re-evaluation of history as recorded during the Communist era, which was therefore deemed almost implicitly tainted, because it systematically omitted or misrepresented issues related to what was perceived to be Croatian nationalism
Croatian nationalism
Croatian nationalism is the nationalism of Croats or of Croatian culture. It arose in the 19th century in response to Magyarization of Croat territories under Hungarian rule, especially under the influence of Ante Starčević and Eugen Kvaternik,...
. On the other hand, the revision of history books often went too far in making them increasingly focused on Croatian national issues, even with far-right interpretations of various World War II events. The re-examination of the number of victims of the Independent State of Croatia, particularly the Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp
Jasenovac concentration camp was the largest extermination camp in the Independent State of Croatia and occupied Yugoslavia during World War II...
, was fairly common, as well as fairly controversial. The topic as such was reasonably relevant, and statistical research such as that by Vladimir Žerjavić
Vladimir Žerjavic
Vladimir Žerjavić was a Croatian economist and a United Nations expert. He published a series of historical articles and books during the 1980s and 1990s in which he argued that the scope of the Holocaust in World War II-era territory of Yugoslavia was intentionally exaggerated...
indicated serious flaws with Yugoslav data, whose sources had been kept secret until 1989, but in an atmosphere of war, this was an incendiary issue associated with the far right.
Graffiti
Far-right extremist graffiti in Croatia often targets ethnic SerbsSerbs
The Serbs are a South Slavic ethnic group of the Balkans and southern Central Europe. Serbs are located mainly in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and form a sizable minority in Croatia, the Republic of Macedonia and Slovenia. Likewise, Serbs are an officially recognized minority in...
, Roma and homosexuals.
Janko Bobetko
Janko Bobetko was a Croatian Army general and Chief of the General Staff during the Croatian War of Independence from 1992 until his retirement in 1995. Bobetko had been charged with war crimes by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia but died before he could be tried...
, the right-wing part of the public was adamant in its demands to prevent that, and some extremist painted graffiti saying so, together with neo-fascist symbols. At the same time, Bobetko was quite clearly not a neo-fascist himself, because his family was killed by the Ustaše, and he fought against them.
Defacement of monuments
In the early 1990s, during the Croatian War of IndependenceCroatian War of Independence
The Croatian War of Independence was fought from 1991 to 1995 between forces loyal to the government of Croatia—which had declared independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia —and the Serb-controlled Yugoslav People's Army and local Serb forces, with the JNA ending its combat...
, numerous monuments erected in honour of the Partisans
Partisans (Yugoslavia)
The Yugoslav Partisans, or simply the Partisans were a Communist-led World War II anti-fascist resistance movement in Yugoslavia...
have been damaged or destroyed throughout the country, and these incidents were generally not censured by the authorities at all. Furthermore, the devastation of World War II partisan monuments also often extended to those erected in honour of civilian victims of war, also with little or no intervention from the police. The defacements occurred during a period when communist parties lost power in much of Eastern Europe.
Names of squares and streets
A square in the central part of ZagrebZagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
had been named the "Square of the victims of fascism" (Trg žrtava fašizma) because during World War II, over sixteen thousand people had been deported via the square to concentration camps. In the early 1990s, this square was renamed to "Square of great Croats" (Trg hrvatskih velikana). This decision was later reverted in December 2000 during Milan Bandić
Milan Bandic
Milan Bandić is an influential Croatian politician currently serving his fourth term as mayor of Croatia's capital, Zagreb. Between 2000 and 2009, he was a prominent member of the Social Democratic Party of Croatia . In 2007, he unsuccessfully ran for party president. However, he remained one of...
's mayoralty of Zagreb
Zagreb
Zagreb is the capital and the largest city of the Republic of Croatia. It is in the northwest of the country, along the Sava river, at the southern slopes of the Medvednica mountain. Zagreb lies at an elevation of approximately above sea level. According to the last official census, Zagreb's city...
.
In several Croatian cities, streets were renamed after Mile Budak
Mile Budak
Mile Budak was a Croatian Ustaše and writer, best known as one of the chief ideologists of the Croatian clerofascist Ustaše movement, which ruled the Independent State of Croatia, or NDH, from 1941-45 and waged a genocidal campaign against its Serb, Roma and Jewish minorities, and against Croatian...
, a prominent Ustaša ideologist, on the basis that he was otherwise a poet. The moves to hail Budak this way, were supported by 120 university professors, scholars, and other public figures. Conversely, the leftist newspaper Feral Tribune
Feral Tribune
Feral Tribune was a Croatian political weekly magazine. Based in Split, it first started as a political satire supplement in Nedjeljna Dalmacija before evolving into an independent satirical weekly paper in 1993...
regularly satirized the Mile Budak streets, and its journalists explicitly criticized this trend.
The renaming of streets and squares after Budak (and other Ustaša-related people) has mostly been reversed by recent governments. In 2003, Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader
Ivo Sanader |Split]]) is a Croatian politician who served as the Prime Minister of Croatia from 2003 to 2009.Sanader obtained his education in comparative literature in Austria, where he also later worked in the 1980s. He worked as a journalist, in marketing, publishing and also as a private...
's government decided to finally deal with the issue which resulted in a decision to rename all the streets bearing Budak's name. In 2004, a plaque commemorating Budak's birth in the village of Sveti Rok was removed by the same authorities. Numerous local authorities however refused to follow up with the renames or delayed them.
Popular culture
Popular culture
Popular culture is the totality of ideas, perspectives, attitudes, memes, images and other phenomena that are deemed preferred per an informal consensus within the mainstream of a given culture, especially Western culture of the early to mid 20th century and the emerging global mainstream of the...
, the pop/folk/rock singer Marko Perković
Marko Perkovic
Marko Perković is a Croatian musician and is the lead singer of the band Thompson since 1991....
(Thompson) caused a scandal when the media obtained a copy song Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara
Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara
"Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara" is a Croatian song promoting the Ustaše. The lyrics celebrate the World War II crimes against the Serbs...
allegedly sung by him. Perković was reportedly not prosecuted for this due to uncertainty as to whether it was really he who sang the song. He has appeared on public television, and can still sometimes be seen on it, even though mainstream TV stations do tend to avoid him in order to avoid controversy. His concerts regularly attract the far-right crowd.
It has been widely alleged that he achieved such large attendances with the support of right-wing political organizations who helped rally people to the concerts. He has been banned from performing in Netherlands
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and other states that do not allow display of Nazi symbols and celebration of the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
, although his group (Thompson
Thompson (band)
Thompson is a Croatian rock band. The group was founded by Marko Perković "Thompson", who is often identified with the band itself, "Thompson" being his stage name. Perković is the songwriter and lead vocalist...
) performed at SS Cyril and Methodius Roman Catholic church in Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
in November 2007, despite well-reported controversy, after the Archdiocese refused to order the engagement's backers to cancel the production.
Thompson himself has denied he has anything to do with Nazism numerous times, and called the campaign against him cheap propaganda, saying he was merely a proud Croatian.
Catholic clergy
Controversy was caused on June 2008 when Croatian military bishop Juraj Jezerinac recitated a song named Bijeli golubovi by Marko Perković Thompson, the controversial singer mentioned above, during a sermon in a church in VukovarVukovar
Vukovar is a city in eastern Croatia, and the biggest river port in Croatia located at the confluence of the Vuka river and the Danube. Vukovar is the center of the Vukovar-Syrmia County...
. The song contained also the NDH motto "Za dom spremni".
Simon Wiesenthal Center
Simon Wiesenthal Center
The Simon Wiesenthal Center , with headquarters in Los Angeles, California, was established in 1977 and named for Simon Wiesenthal, the Nazi hunter. According to its mission statement, it is "an international Jewish human rights organization dedicated to repairing the world one step at a time...
director Efraim Zuroff
Efraim Zuroff
Efraim Zuroff is an Israeli historian of American origin, who has played a role in bringing Nazis indicted for war crimes to trial...
complained to the Croatian president Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan Mesić
Stjepan "Stipe" Mesić is a Croatian politician and former President of Croatia. Before his ten-year presidential term between 2000 and 2010 he held the posts of Speaker of the Croatian Parliament , Prime Minister of Croatia , the last President of the Presidency of Yugoslavia , Secretary General...
about the funeral of Dinko Šakić
Dinko Šakic
Dinko Šakić was a convicted Croatian war criminal, an army leader of the fascist Independent State of Croatia , established under Third Reich and Italian tutelage, and commander of the Jasenovac concentration camp during World War II.-Biography:He was born in Studenci, in the Kingdom of Serbs,...
, one of the leaders of the army of the Independent State of Croatia, who died on July 2008. At that funeral, Croatian Dominican priest pater Vjekoslav Lasić held a speech in which he said that "the court that indicted Dinko Šakić indicted Croatia and Croatians", and that "every Croat should be proud of Šakić's name".
Sports
Some Croatian football supporters or other sports fans regularly display UstašeUstaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
symbols or characteristics.
There are instances of explicit anti-Serb hate speech in sports: the phrase Srbe na vrbe! (meaning "hang Serbs on the willow trees!") is frequently chanted by Croatian football hooligans. The same phrase appears in graffiti
Graffiti
Graffiti is the name for images or lettering scratched, scrawled, painted or marked in any manner on property....
.
Ultranationalist Croats use to shout the slogan "Kill the Serb" frequently during sporting events. According to some Croatian media, a group of youths chanted this during a concert by Marko Perković Thompson.
In January 2006, the Ustasha song "Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara" was played publicly during the interval of an international club volleyball match. Officials later attributed the incident to a single individual, and the police did not intervene.
During a friendly match between Croatia
Croatia national football team
The Croatia national football team represents Croatia in international football. The team is controlled by the Croatian Football Federation, the governing body for football in the country, and has been managed since 2006 by former player Slaven Bilić...
and Italy
Italy national football team
The Italy National Football Team , represents Italy in association football and is controlled by the Italian Football Federation , the governing body for football in Italy. Italy is the second most successful national team in the history of the World Cup having won four titles , just one fewer than...
in Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
in 2006, a small group of Croatian fans stood in a swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
formation in response to Italians fans waving communist
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
flags; UEFA
UEFA
The Union of European Football Associations , almost always referred to by its acronym UEFA is the administrative and controlling body for European association football, futsal and beach soccer....
penalized the Croatian Football Federation
Croatian Football Federation
The Croatian Football Federation is the governing body of association football in Croatia. It was originally formed in 1912 and is based in the capital city of Zagreb. The organisation is a member of both FIFA and UEFA, and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of football in Croatia...
for the incident.
In 2007, Croatian football fans formed the letter U in a stadium during a match in Bosnia.
In October 2007, the Croatian newspaper Slobodna Dalmacija
Slobodna Dalmacija
Slobodna Dalmacija is a Croatian daily newspaper published in Split.The first issue of Slobodna Dalmacija was published on June 17, 1943 by Tito's Partisans in a cave on Mosor, a mountain near Split, which was occupied by the Italian army during that time. The paper was later published in various...
reported that NK Imotski
NK Imotski
NK Imotski is a Croatian football club based in the town of Imotski, in the region of Dalmatia. They play in Druga HNL, Croatia's second level.-Current squad:-Nationalist symbols controversy:...
's official clothing items featured Ustaša
Ustaše
The Ustaša - Croatian Revolutionary Movement was a Croatian fascist anti-Yugoslav separatist movement. The ideology of the movement was a blend of fascism, Nazism, and Croatian nationalism. The Ustaše supported the creation of a Greater Croatia that would span to the River Drina and to the border...
-related symbols (The letter U and the Independent State of Croatia
Independent State of Croatia
The Independent State of Croatia was a World War II puppet state of Nazi Germany, established on a part of Axis-occupied Yugoslavia. The NDH was founded on 10 April 1941, after the invasion of Yugoslavia by the Axis powers. All of Bosnia and Herzegovina was annexed to NDH, together with some parts...
-resembling coat of arms
Coat of arms of Croatia
The coat of arms of Croatia consists of one main shield and five smaller shields which form a crown over the main shield. The main coat of arms is a checkerboard that consists of 13 red and 12 silver fields. It's commonly known as šahovnica or grb...
inside the letter. That was, in fact, the logo of the club's leading sponsor, the edile company gUj (meaning "Gojko Und Jure"). Some historians and critics claim the symbols display is an open praising of the Ustaše. The club's president, Nediljko Tolo, said: "As long as the sponsor finances our club, we will carry those symbols on our dresses". In early November 2007, the Croatian Second League Association announced that NK Imotski
NK Imotski
NK Imotski is a Croatian football club based in the town of Imotski, in the region of Dalmatia. They play in Druga HNL, Croatia's second level.-Current squad:-Nationalist symbols controversy:...
violated FIFA
FIFA
The Fédération Internationale de Football Association , commonly known by the acronym FIFA , is the international governing body of :association football, futsal and beach football. Its headquarters are located in Zurich, Switzerland, and its president is Sepp Blatter, who is in his fourth...
, Croatian Football Federation
Croatian Football Federation
The Croatian Football Federation is the governing body of association football in Croatia. It was originally formed in 1912 and is based in the capital city of Zagreb. The organisation is a member of both FIFA and UEFA, and is responsible for overseeing all aspects of the game of football in Croatia...
rules and laws of the Republic of Croatia. NK Imotski had to end a sponsorship deal with gUj until the company changes its logo. NK Imotski had to find new uniforms for the players and remove all gUj advertisements around the stadium.
In November 2007, it was reported that members of the Hajduk Split supporters' group, Torcida Split
Torcida Split
Torcida is a Hajduk Split supporters group, from Croatia, founded on 28 October 1950. The name "Torcida" is the Brazilian Portuguese word for "supporters". Club fans operate from Zrinsko Frankopanska-17, Split...
, were wearing black T-shirt
T-shirt
A T-shirt is a style of shirt. A T-shirt is buttonless and collarless, with short sleeves and frequently a round neck line....
s featuring the words "Hajduk jugend" (alluding to Hitlerjugend
Hitler Youth
The Hitler Youth was a paramilitary organization of the Nazi Party. It existed from 1922 to 1945. The HJ was the second oldest paramilitary Nazi group, founded one year after its adult counterpart, the Sturmabteilung...
) in Fraktur and an eagle
Eagle
Eagles are members of the bird family Accipitridae, and belong to several genera which are not necessarily closely related to each other. Most of the more than 60 species occur in Eurasia and Africa. Outside this area, just two species can be found in the United States and Canada, nine more in...
atop Hajduk's logo (resembling a Nazi Party symbol). The T-shirts were also being sold on Torcida's website. Stipe Lekić, the secretary of Torcida said to reporters that "Torcida has always been leaning to the right", but rejecting accusations that the T-shirts have connections with Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
. He said that he was wearing the T-shirt because he liked the symbols.
Also in November 2007, a Swastika
Swastika
The swastika is an equilateral cross with its arms bent at right angles, in either right-facing form in counter clock motion or its mirrored left-facing form in clock motion. Earliest archaeological evidence of swastika-shaped ornaments dates back to the Indus Valley Civilization of Ancient...
appeared on Osijek
Osijek
Osijek is the fourth largest city in Croatia with a population of 83,496 in 2011. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja county...
's Gradski vrt
Gradski vrt
Gradski vrt is a multi-use stadium in the Croatian city of Osijek. It is home to two Croatian football clubs, NK Osijek and Fortuna VNO Osijek.It has a capacity of 22,050 .- History :...
football field, together with the slogan "Play, fags!". That was, reportedly done before the match with Međimurje. NK Osijek
NK Osijek
NK Osijek is a Croatian football club, from Osijek in eastern Croatia.- History :NK Osijek's early roots are found in club called NK Udarnik that was formed in 1945 under FPR Yugoslavia's new communist authorities on the ashes of dissolved HŠK Slavija...
's and their Kohorta fan association condemned the acts.