Marko Perković Thompson

Thompson, scene from the movie The Wedding, collage

From the new issue

05.march 2026 JJ / KS

Between "The Wedding" and Thompson: Two Audiences or One Society

The movie "The Wedding" fills cinemas throughout Croatia and the region. At the same time, Marko Perković Thompson's mass concerts show the power of narratives that reinforce those stereotypes

"Wedding" and Croatian society today

05.march 2026 Jelena Jorgacevic

Is there a reason to laugh?

Is the movie Wedding, with hundreds of thousands of viewers, is it just a very successful formula for entertaining the masses or is this phenomenon hiding something else? How is it possible that almost every fourth citizen of Croatia went to the cinema to watch a film about the marriage of a Serb and a Croatian woman, and that hundreds of thousands attended Thompson's concerts? How do young men, dressed in black, march through Split and ban a folkloric performance by a group from Novi Sad, while at the same time Serbian folk music is heard at parties all over Croatia? Do these people live in different worlds, in their own informational and cultural bubbles, or do they all intertwine

Croatia

12.February 2026. Jaroslav Pecnik

Plenković's dangerous hunting in the dark

The recent success of Croatian handball players served the ruling HDZ as a backdrop for a political showdown with dissidents, primarily with the mayor of Zagreb, Tomislav Tomašević. At first glance, Prime Minister Andrej Plenković won, but a second look shows a different picture. For now, the only thing that is certain is that the loser of Plenković's political maneuvers is Croatian democracy

TV maniac

05.February 2026. Dragan Ilic

The use of enemies, for elections ready

From the progressive stand at Konjarnik they rocked Nail heads, Thomson's first and biggest hit that begins with the Ustasha salute "Za dom spremni". Chauvinists impress each other

Croatia

03.February 2026. Zoran Arbutina / DW

Thompson to welcome Croatian handball players: Who determines what patriotism is?

The controversy surrounding the reception of bronze handball players in Zagreb showed the deep division of Croatian society and the impossibility of forming a common narrative. Politically, both the left and the right profit from it

Marko Perković Thompson's concert at the Zagreb Hippodrome

Region

26.November 2025 Marija L. Jankovic

Prohibition of the Ustasha shout: Zagreb is finally ready for Thompson?

Perhaps the Supreme Court of Croatia will again have to make a decision on the Ustasha rallying cry "Ready for home". And that could decide whether Marko Perković Thompson can perform in the city of Zagreb

Croatia

22.September 2025 Igor Lasic/DW

Kulturkampf: Croatian war veterans against the "haters" of Croatia

The summer debates surrounding the banning of left-wing cultural festivals in Croatia showed that the struggle for public space is no longer just cultural, but deeply political. While veteran associations target the organizers as "haters of Croatia", the left remains closed to the narrow festival circle

Region

14.August 2025 Jaroslav Pecnik

The heating up of creeping Ustašization in Croatia

And perhaps this "unbearable ease of indifference" towards evil is the worst thing that happened to Croatian society, which thus lost moral landmarks and values, or at least became largely deficient in those landmarks and contents.

Croatia

05.August 2025 MLJ

"Jasenovac and Gradiška Stara": Arrests before Thompson's concert in Sinj

Six people brought her to Sinja before Thompson's concert because they played the poem "Jasenovac and Gradiška Stara" over the loudspeaker. About 150.000 tickets were sold

Personal attitude

16.July 2025 Todor Kuljic

Generation and antigeneration

In Serbia, the effort of young people for change is impressive. An authentic generational experience was created, that is, a situation where the experience of the elderly does not help. The Croatian choir is led by a generation of young people who are proud of the liberating experience of their elders. The self-descriptions of young and old patriots are not irreconcilable. Their necessarily different experiences and expectations homogenize the trivial ethnic and prevent the fruitful generationalization of youth resistance. In other words, nationalism neutralizes generations

Croatia

12.July 2025 B. B.

Picula about Thompson's concert: Part of Croatia has apparently abandoned European values

"Marko Perković Thompson is not worried, but the transformation of HDZ and the Government under HDZ", said Croatian MEP Tonino Picula

Thompson in Zagreb

09.July 2025 Nedim Sejdinovic

The most massive pro-fascist rally after the Second World War

Thompson has not changed so much as Croatian society has changed, as hard nationalism has been normalized, says journalist Ladislav Tomičić for "Vreme". The writer Ivica Đikić states for our paper that Plenković has been talking about Europeanism for years, "and then he appears as a political sponsor of a concert where the slogan 'Za dom spremni' is shouted". The President of the SDSS Milorad Pupovac concludes that it is "a glorification of the Ustasha, an act of renewing the Ustasha spirit"

TV maniac

09.July 2025 Dragan Ilic

Summoning the devil

The collective frustration of Thompson's right-wing and ultra-right-leaning audience is confusing. Especially since the Croatian nationalists fulfilled all historical plans - from an independent state, through membership in the EU and NATO to the reduction of the number of Serbs to the level of a statistical error

Croatia

07.July 2025 Srećko Matić (DW)

The number of people at Thompson's concert as the number of Ustasha victims

The number of people at Marko Perkovic Thompson's concert is similar to the number of victims of the Ustasha regime that Thompson is rehabilitating, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung writes.

Glorification of the NDH

06.July 2025 Andjelko Subic / DW

The day after the Thompson concert: 6.500 police officers, 245 interventions, 123 arrests

More than 6.500 police officers, a temporary hospital, a special traffic regime - Zagreb activated emergency measures for Thompson's concert. The police did not react during the event itself, but announced a detailed analysis of the videos for potential violations of the law

Croatia

05.July 2025 MS

Thompson's concert: Selfies with the Prime Minister and the Minister of Police and, the danger of Ustasha symbols

Marko Perković Thompson's concert, which according to many Croatian historians and politicians should have been banned, is still being held at the Zagreb Hippodrome. What are the reactions?

Croatia

04.July 2025 B. B.

"Historic" Thompson concert with half a million visitors

At Marko Perkovic Thompson's concert, half a million people are expected to "glorify the Ustaste". And those who did not manage to get a ticket, can go to a special evening mass in the church of St. Joseph in Split and pray "that this historic event will be for the glory of God and for the unity and harmony of the Croatian people."

Germany

27.June 2025 Anđelko Šubić (DW)

A German company is responsible for the technology at Thompson's concert

A German company is in charge of the technology at Thompson's upcoming concert in Zagreb - despite Thompson's connections with German neo-Nazis, writes the "Korektiv" portal.

Croatia: The phenomenon of Marko Perković Thompson

16.April 2025. Katarina Stevanović

Ustašluk and entertainment

Marko Perković Thompson, a Croatian singer of Ustasha songs, sold half a million tickets for a concert in Zagreb. New generations have arrived in whose cosmos there is no contradiction between listening to Serbian teas and Headless

Patriotism

21.march 2025 B. B.

The new "performance" of the ambassador to Croatia, Jelena Milić

Serbian Ambassador to Croatia Jelena Milić criticized the attitude of the Croatian public towards the ultra-nationalist singer Mark Perković Thompson, and then demonstratively left the meeting on minority protection systems in Croatia and Serbia

Baja Mali Knindža and Marko Perković Thompson

Relations between Serbia and Croatia

13.October 2024 TS

Poems of Baja Little Knindza and Thompson: War criminals cannot be treated as national heroes

From border arrests and nationalist songs, to conflicting views on Jasenovac and Ujja. Political analysts from Serbia and Croatia discussed the problems between these two countries and tried to explain why Serbia and Croatia still cannot free themselves from the shadows of the past.