Published 26.08.2025. | Nina Sauerborn
Increase in exclusivity, hate speech, death threats, calls for attacks and attacks in Croatia
Concerned about the increase in exclusivity, which threatens the freedom of expression, the safety of journalists, human rights activists and cultural figures, we demand a decisive reaction from the Government of the Republic of Croatia, not only to individual incidents, to which the Ministry of the Interior and the State Attorney's Office should respond according to the law, but also to all manifestations of intolerance and hatred at public events.
The big concerts of Marko Perković Thompson in Zagreb and Sinj, at which the salute "Za dom spremni" (For the Homeland Ready) rang out from hundreds of thousands of throats, including ministers of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, as well as the celebration of the anniversary of the Operation Storm and the celebration of victory in Knin and other places, were accompanied by black shirts and the singing of Ustasha songs. We believe that the problem of opening up public space for exclusivity and hatred will not be solved by several misdemeanor reports mentioned by Prime Minister Andrej Plenković at the 112th session of the Government of the Republic of Croatia, saying that: "the police report everyone who abuses salutes and insignia from the Homeland War, but no one has censored the songs so far and will not do so in 2025", referring to Thompson's song "Bojna Čavoglave".
As in the past, the problem of hate speech is visible in football stadiums, only now it resonates even more strongly. On the eve of the match between the football clubs Hajduk and Istra on August 3 at the stadium at Poljud in Split, Torcida chanted: "Let's go Ustashas" and the "Za dom spremni", clearly declaring themselves the successors of the criminals from the Second World War[1]. Unlike the time when, due to the shouting of "Za dom spremni" after the match between the national teams of Croatia and Iceland played in 2013, penalties were imposed by football associations[2], and convictions of the Constitutional Court and the European Court of Human Rights were passed, reactions were now lukewarm.
The way in which exclusivity can roll on the streets in a particularly ugly way became visible in Benkovac, where the opening of the festival was canceled due to the protests of some local volunteers and football fans. When public space is appropriated, when journalists are attacked and the police, instead of protecting, advise journalist Melita Vrsaljko to leave her hometown, this is not an incident but a path towards the fascisation of a society in which violence and the privileged symbolic status, in this case of veterans, replace the law and equality with others. It was only with a delay that the police filed an indictment for the offense of misdemeanor under Article 6 of the Criminal Code. Law on Misdemeanors against Public Order and Peace, against four men from the ranks of veterans and Torcida fans. It is shameful that the program of the Festival "Nosi se" was postponed today due to a security risk.
The campaign of intimidation builds on threats, of which we will mention only a few to illustrate the gradual creation of a climate of fear, so alien to democracy.
The latest in a series of death threats against human rights activist Zoran Pusić, president of the Anti-Fascist League of the Republic of Croatia, came on July 11[3]. She was reported to the police. We have no feedback on their actions.
On 21 July[4], the President of the Serb National Council, Boris Milošević, a member of parliament in office (2016-2020), published a threatening letter that he received. The threat was reported to the police. We have no feedback on their actions.
For years, threatening letters have been coming to human rights activists, representatives of national minority organizations, especially Serb ones, and they are also received by historians and other scholars who write about recent history on the basis of facts, and not daily political suitability, as well as investigative journalists. But this summer, blackness is sweeping down an ever-widening circle of people who speak critically in public and/or on social networks about the distortion of facts about crimes committed in the wars of the 20th century and the flood of hate speech.
On August 12, one of the leading figures of the Workers' Front, Katarina Peović, a member of parliament in the mandate (2020 – 2024), sent an open letter[5] to the Minister of the Interior and the Attorney General, with a request to determine who is behind the profile from which the chase on social networks spread, after false allegations, about her words from 1991, in which she says: "Such a post is a call to attack, It's physical, not just verbal.
We hope that in their work the police will show at least some of the agility they showed in the research following an anonymous report to the police in which citizen S.B. (information known to civil society organizations and the police) is charged with anti-Croatism, Bosniak nationalism and spreading hatred[6]. The police officers who came to question him could not say on what basis they came, except that it was his post on the social network.
In its August 14 issue, Hrvatski tjednik attacked singer Severina Vučković, MP Dalija Orešković and singer Vlatka Pokos on its front page, calling them "Miserable Witches"[7].
On August 15, in his holiday sermon, the Guardian of Sinj, Fr. Marinko Vukman, called for suffering and death for all those who do not think "about unity" as he does, especially emphasizing Dalija Orešković[8].
When journalists, human rights activists and cultural workers are attacked, the freedom of all of us is at stake; Their work is of exceptional public interest, it is a litmus test of the maturity of democracy.
That is why we demand that the Government of the Republic of Croatia, instead of downplaying the importance of the problem of exclusivity, react to the incidents with clear condemnations, such as the Minister of Culture and Media Nina Obuljen Koržinek, who expressed "solidarity with the organizers, participants and the audience with the hope that such a situation will not happen again in Benkovac or anywhere else in Croatia". Concrete support through personal attendance at cultural events in response to the anger of people who abuse the status of veterans would also be significant.
Croatia needs a strategic turn towards systematic opposition to all forms of exclusivity and hatred, and education reform, which more than 40,000 citizens demanded on the streets, and has not been implemented to date.
Due to the seriousness of the problem of exclusivity and attacks on journalists, human rights activists and cultural figures, which, when it happens in an EU member state, is also an EU problem, we will also address the competent European institutions.
Documenta - Centre for Dealing with the Past
Anti-Fascist League of the Republic of Croatia
Centre for Peace, Nonviolence and Human Rights - Osijek
Association "Pomak"
Center for Support and Development of Civil Society "Delfin"
GONG
Multimedia Institute "Močvara" Club/Association for the Development of Culture "URK"
Youth Initiative for Human Rights
[1] https://dalmatinskiportal.hr/sport/video-torcida-skandirala–ajmo–ustase–i–za-dom-spremni-poljud-u-mraku/243973
[2] https://www.tportal.hr/sport/clanak/tri-godine-od-slucaja-simunic-od-uzvika-za-dom-do-sablasnog-maksimira-20161110
[3] https://www.portalnovosti.com/prijetnje-zoranu-pusicu/
[4] https://www.jutarnji.hr/vijesti/hrvatska/boris-milosevic-objavio-prijetece-pismo-koje-je-dobio-ti-si-sad-jedan-od-cetnickih-vozdova-u-hrvatskoj-ako-ne-znas-sto-je-bilo-15605944
[5] https://www.index.hr/vijesti/clanak/peovic-poslala-otvoreno-pismo-bozinovicu-siri-se-laz-da-sam-podrzavala-cetnike/2699044.aspx
[6] https://lupiga.com/vijesti/sigurnost-i-povjerenje-policija-lovi-gradjane-zbog-antihrvatstva-a-ustasovanje-ostaje-nekaznjeno
[7] https://www.nacional.hr/skandalozno-hrvatski-tjednik-o-daliji-oreskovic-severini-i-vlatki-pokos-uboge-vjestice/
[8] https://www.glas-slavonije.hr/novosti/hrvatska/2025/08/18/crkva-suti-o-fra-vukmanu-712987/
