3 May 2020

EURACTIV: Croatia president quits state ceremony in protest at Nazi-era salute

“But one of the participants, who was in line to lay the wreath before me, was dressed in clothes with the emblem ‘For the homeland ready’, which is something I do not want to be a part of,” Milanovic said.

‘For the homeland ready’ is a salute used by the Ustasha movement which ruled Croatia during World War Two, when the country was formally allied with the Nazis and brutally persecuted Jews, Serbs and anti-fascists. [...]

Croatia, which became independent in 1991 and joined the EU in July 2013, has paid lip service to anti-fascism but has been ambivalent about its fascist past. The legacy of the country’s Ustasha regime, as well as of the subsequent 45 years of communism, is a topic that sharply divides the Croatian society to this day.

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