Thousands of people on Sunday joined protest marches in Croatia against a surging far right following a spate of incidents that have fueled both ethnic and political tensions in the European Union country. Gatherings dubbed "United against fascism" were organized in four major cities, including the capital, Zagreb. The crowd chanted "We are all antifascists!" as they pledged to counter what they described as an attempt by right-wing groups to spread fear and silence opponents, the AP reports.
Protesters demanded that the authorities curb hard-right groups and their frequent use of pro-fascist symbols relating to Croatia's World War II pro-Nazi puppet state, which ran concentration camps where tens of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma, and antifascist Croats were executed. "We will not agree to treating national minorities as a provocation and to an idea of patriotism that draws its symbols from the darkest episode of our history," a declaration stated. "All that has been happening around us is very dangerous," journalist Maja Sever told the Zagreb demonstrators. "You have shown you will not be quiet but that we will fight for a democratic society."
Groups of young men wearing black showed up in counter-gatherings in the northwestern port city of Rijeka and the central coastal town of Zadar, where they shouted insults and threw firecrackers and red paint at the protesters, according to the HRT public broadcaster. Extremist incidents in November targeted ethnic Serb cultural events in Zagreb and in the coastal city of Split, sparking fears of ethnic violence decades after a Serb-Croat war in 1991-95. Extremists have spoken against foreign workers in Croatia, often using the "For the homeland—Ready!" salute of the Nazi-era puppet Ustasha regime that ran Croatia during World War II.
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