A hugely popular Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans made a pro-nazi greeting of World War II in a massive concert in Zagreb, attracting criticism.
One of Marko Perkovic’s most popular songs, played at Saturday’s concert for the last last time, begins with the dreaded “For the Homeland, ready!” Greetings, used by the puppet regime of the Nazi Nazi era of Croatia that ran concentration camps at that time.
Perkovic, whose theatrical name is Thompson after a machine gun made by the United States, had previously said both the song and greeting focus on the ethnic war of 1991-95 in Croatia, in which he fought using the American firearm, after the country declared the independence of the former Yugoslavia. He says that his controversial song is “a witness of an era.”
The 1990 conflict broke out when the rebel minority serbia, backed by neighbor Serbia, assumed weapons, with the intention of separating from Croatia and joining Serbia.
Perkovic’s immense popularity in Croatia reflects the predominant nationalist feelings in the country 30 years after the war ended.
The World War II troops in Croatia brutally killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Romani and anti -fascist Croats in a series of concentration camps in the country. In spite of the documented atrocities, some nationalists still see the leaders of the Ustasha regime as founders of the Independent Croatian State.
The organizers said that half a million people attended the Perkovic concert in the Croatian capital. The video images issued by the Croatian media showed many fans who show greetings pro-nazis earlier in the day.
The greeting is punishable by law in Croatia, but the courts have ruled that Perkovic can use it as part of his song, said the TRT of Croatian state television.
Perkovic has been forbidden to act in some European cities about frequent references and pro-nazi exhibitions in their concerts.
Croatia’s neighborhood list wrote daily that the “supreme organization” of the concert has been eclipsed by the use of the greeting of a regime that signed in “mass executions of people.”
Regional television N1 pointed out that anyone who is the modern interpretations of greeting that can be their roots are “no doubt” in the era of the Ustasha regime.
N1 said that while “the Germans have made a clear cut” of anything related to the Nazis “to avoid crooked interpretations and the return to a dark past … Croatia is not close to that in 2025”.
In neighboring Serbia, populist president Aleksandar Vucic criticized Perkovic concerts as an exhibition “support for pro-nazis values.” The former liberal leader Serbio Boris Tadic said it was a “great shame for Croatia” and “the European Union” because the concert “glorifies the murder of members of One Nation, in this case Serbian.”
Croatia joined the EU in 2013.
The Croatian police said that Perkovic’s concert was the largest in the country and an invisible security challenge, deploying thousands of officers.
No important incidents were reported.
