Savaging of Serb Leader Highlights Croatia’s Nationalism Problem

A series of warnings about the rise of intolerance against ethnic minorities, hate speech and historical revisionism in Croatian society have attracted very little or no public attention - except one, from Croatian Serb leader Milorad Pupovac, which has been causing controversy for over a month.

At the end of August, Pupovac told Bosnian media that Croatia was turning into a factor of instability in the former Yugoslavia, and that there are attempts in the country to rehabilitate the ideas of the World War II Ustasa fascist movement.

This caused war veterans' organsations and right-wingers to start loudly insisting that Pupovac, whose Independent Democratic Serb Party, SDSS, is a junior member of Croatia's ruling coalition, should apologise.

The Association of Disabled War Veterans, HVIDRA, was the most vocal in its condemnation: "We demand that Milorad Pupovac apologise to all citizens of the Republic of Croatia, and if he does not do so, we are asking Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic to make a decision to break up the coalition with the SDSS party," HVIDRA said in a statement.

The war veterans' group insisted that Pupovac "crossed the line with his unjustified lies and insults against the Croatian state - founded in the [1990s] Homeland War, on the blood of our people, in defence against Greater Serbian aggression".

HVIDRA also filed a criminal complaint to State Attorney's Office against Pupovac, invoking Article 349 of the criminal code, which says that anyone who mocks or disparages the Republic of Croatia, its flag, coat of arms or national anthem, should be sanctioned.

Observers have suggested said that right-wingers have assumed a position of inflated importance in Croatian society and that Pupovac's criticism angered...