It was a night full of diabolical symbolism in Croatia: while in the early evening hours (November 3), Zagreb's political and social elite gathered in the wider city center in order to magnify with their presence the opening ceremony of the second stage of the Croatian National Theatre, HNK 2 - in the wider center Split, in the city district of Blatina-Škrapa, about fifty, mostly younger hooligans, allegedly members of the Torcida fan group, dressed in black, threatening violence prevented the holding of a folklore-drama evening as part of the opening of the Day of Serbian Culture in Split, writes DW.
And while the elegant audience in Zagreb applauded the dance, drama and opera performances as part of the appropriate program for the opening of the new stage of the "temple of Croatian culture", in Split, an aggressive mob, shouting the Ustasha salute "Ready for home" and cursing "Serbian trash", prevented the scheduled cultural and artistic program, dispersed the audience, and forced the performers, including those from Novi Sad, to seek safety by fleeing to buses.
Before that, according to witnesses, while in front of the entrance to the Gradski Kotar hall, a crowd dressed in black, some with masks on their faces, created a threatening scenography. Along the way, they said that it was All Saints' Day, so that manifestation would desecrate the memory of the veterans, and that this is a sensitive month in which the victims in Vukovar are marked and commemorated.
After "negotiations" with the attackers, in which they agreed to allow people to leave the hall peacefully, the organizers canceled the event, and the guests from Novi Sad they came back. According to the organizers, there were no physical injuries, and the police, according to their own statements, are "conducting an investigation".
Responsibility lies at the top of the state
In the first reaction yesterday evening, the Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic wrote on his X channel that he "strongly condemns the incident" and expects the competent authorities to prosecute those responsible "as soon as possible". "Exclusivity or any form of intolerance towards national minorities has no place in Croatian society," the prime minister wrote.
And at today's (November 4) extraordinary press conference, he added that it was an "unpleasant incident" in which "members of the fan group apparently participated". He also said that "street law has no place in Croatia", and that such an act has nothing to do with protecting the dignity of war and veterans. In addition, Plenković emphasizes that his government does not tolerate revisionism and Ustasha, and that he rejects such accusations.
But Vesna Teršelić, head of Dokumenta - a center for dealing with the past, sees the responsibility for the creation of a climate conducive to xenophobia and aggressive exclusivity in the political and social actions of some of the highest representatives of the state.
"It is painful to watch how the space of freedom is narrowing in Croatia. Yesterday's attack is a serious additional warning that Croatia has not faced the past and that currently the institutions are not able, and I wonder if they are willing, to guarantee the space freedom, freedom of expression, creativity, media and scientific freedom to everyone who lives in the Republic of Croatia," Teršelič told DW.
As he adds, the process of relativizing the past and the Ustasha symbol is at work, which has been going on for a long time, "but this last period is the most problematic period so far. And this is where I see the prime minister's direct responsibility."
Croatia's right turn
However, this incident in Split did not come out of nowhere. Jurica Pavičić, a journalist and writer from that city, who recently himself was the target of right-wing attacks due to his critical and liberal views, points out in an interview with DW that the excess in Split is only a piece in the mosaic of right-wing radicalization, which has been taking place particularly intensively in Croatia since July and Thompson's concert in Zagreb.
"There was a crowd of people there, and Ustasha and neo-Nazi iconography was very present. Before that crowd, the moderately conservative government bowed down. Plenković went to bow before the concert Thompson, four ministers were at the concert. The ruling HDZ tried to enclose its right wing so as not to lose votes there. And that's where the fire got out of control," says Pavičić.
That concert was a kind of starting signal for an extreme right-wing position that is trying to completely dominate both political and social life. During the summer, there were several - successful and unsuccessful - actions by the veterans' association to prevent a cultural festival that was alien to them from a worldview, threats and hate slogans were written on the buildings where prominent writers, Miljenko Jergović and Jurica Pavičić live, and a few days ago a scandalous revisionist round table was organized in the Parliament on the topic "Scientific approach to the research of the victims of Jasenovac" organized by the right-wing parties DOMiNO and the Croatian Sovereignists. Basic thesis: Jasenovac was not a death camp at all, but a labor camp.
According to Jurica Pavičić, a clear social shift to the right has been visible for some time and a younger generation has grown up, which, she says, was formed by extremely problematic Croatian institutions.
"The fans from the stadium stands or skinheads are a smaller problem, and the bigger problem is that this atmosphere dominates social pillars, from Matica Hrvatska, to the Academy of Sciences and Arts, from the University to the State Prosecutor's Office, including the Church, which in Croatia is extremely revisionist. Part of that picture is also the veteran organizations that have turned into a bad copy of SUBNOR from the time of late socialism, when it was a retrograde brakeman of society," our interlocutor believes.
Wrong assessment by Plenković
At the same time, Pavičić adds, in his opinion, he is not the one who is actively working to affirm that atmosphere of intolerance and exclusivity. His responsibility lies primarily in inaction, in passivity. "I think it's disgusting to him personally, but there's a combination of opportunism, cowardice and a sense that the whole political momentum has shifted to the right."
This leads Plenković and the people around him to passivity, which, according to Pavičić, is a wrong assessment: "Any kind of right-wing populist revolution in Croatia cannot be complete without eliminating Plenković as a political factor. He is precisely in himself a symbol of what they despise, but he does not act as if he understands it, but as if it is a threat to others."
Until now, expressions of intolerance and exclusivity have mostly ended with threats and intimidation, but aggression and an atmosphere of violence are in the air. Speaking about the possibility of direct violence, Pavičić says: "Yes, it's possible. It wouldn't surprise me."
