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<strong>SNV</strong> <strong>Bulletin</strong> <strong>#6</strong> / 74<br />
named Bujica, who was remembered for the following statement<br />
he made in the 1990s: “It is clear what solution of the Serb issue<br />
I advocate – one third to be expelled, one third of the loyal ones<br />
to be converted (to Catholicism) and one third, the criminals,<br />
to be executed”. Guests also included Josip Klemm and Đuro<br />
Glogoški, leaders of militant war veterans’ protests against<br />
Zoran Milanović’s government, Marko Perković Thompson, a<br />
popular singer of ultranationalist songs, Tomislav Merčep who<br />
was charged with war crimes against Serb civilians in Pakračka<br />
Poljana and Željko Sačić, who had been a war crimes suspect for<br />
the killings of Serbs in Grubori. Grabar-Kitarović soon demonstrated<br />
her position regarding the heritage of the (1941–45)<br />
war in Jasenovac 3 and Bleiburg. 4 She sent her deputies to both<br />
events, thus de facto equalising the significance of those two<br />
execution sites. The newly elected president refused to state<br />
her position with regard to an initiative to introduce the Ustasha<br />
salute “For the homeland ready” 5 into the official military use.<br />
She condemned the initiative only after pressure from the public.<br />
Grabar-Kitarović decided to build her foreign policy on distancing<br />
from the neighbouring countries of the region. Thus in July she<br />
stated: “During the mandate of Ivo Josipović, we went to sing and<br />
dance in Belgrade and went to great lengths to show our attachment<br />
to Belgrade as a metaphor of Yugo-nostalgia (a derogatory<br />
term denoting preference for communist Yugoslavia over newly<br />
independent Croatia), rather than to the entire region, but we<br />
failed to solve a single open issue”. 6<br />
The first half of <strong>2015</strong> was marked by protests of war veterans who<br />
at the start of the presidential election campaign pitched a tent<br />
in front of the Ministry of War Veterans building in the Savska<br />
street in Zagreb, demanding the resignation of Minister Predrag<br />
Matić and his assistants. Their protest was based on nationalism<br />
and on several occasions they evoked a coup by putting gas<br />
tanks on the streets of Zagreb. With the help from the Catholic<br />
clergy, they later pitched camp in front of the Government and<br />
Parliament buildings and inside the historic St. Mark’s church.<br />
Just like during the presidential election, the HDZ continued to<br />
base its parliamentary election campaign on narrow-minded exclusivism,<br />
invoking the policies the party had implemented under<br />
the late president Tuđman, and on anti-socialism. HDZ president<br />
Tomislav Karamarko used jingoistic rhetoric and on several occasions<br />
urged all the HDZ members to be “united like they were in<br />
the 1990”and to wage “a new Homeland war for the better future<br />
of Croatia and its citizens”. 7 In the election, the HDZ joined forces<br />
3 Jasenovac,<br />
concentration camp<br />
which the pro-Nazi<br />
government had<br />
established in Croatia<br />
between 1941-1945 and<br />
where more than 80,000<br />
Serbs, Jewish, Roma and<br />
antifascist were killed<br />
4 Bleiburg, a town in<br />
Austria outside which<br />
several thousands of<br />
members of the pro Nazi<br />
NDH army were executed<br />
in May of 1945<br />
5 “Za dom spremni”,<br />
salute which was in<br />
official and public use<br />
during the NDH, 1941-45<br />
6 http://www.tportal.hr/<br />
vijesti/svijet/388480/U-<br />
Josipovicevu-mandatuislo-se-pjevati-i-plesatiu-Beograd.html<br />
7 http://www.index.<br />
hr/vijesti/clanak/<br />
karamarko-svaki-danpoziva-u-rat-hdz-danaskao-1990-krecemou-novi-domovinskirat/829716.aspx
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