Croatian nationalism

There will be no left-wing pre-election coalition in Croatia to counter the main ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ.

This was made clear after the opposition Mozemo! [We Can!] party announced it will go alone into the next elections, rejecting a pre-election alliance with the opposition Social Democrats, SDP.

The Serbian Museum of Genocide Victims said on Friday that it has obtained a list with the names and details of 5,800 Serbian children rescued from Ustasa death camps in the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia, which was thought to have been lost or destroyed.

Bosnia and Herzegovina completed the formation of a state-level government on Wednesday, several months after the October 2022 general elections, with the approval of the new Council of Ministers led by Borjana Kristo, vice-president of the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, the main Bosnian Croat party. 

The prize-winning author of the design for the one-euro coin in Croatia withdrew his design on Monday, after claims that he had copied a published photograph.

Stjepan Pranjkovic said he was withdrawing the design due to "negative atmosphere in the media, as well as the pressure" he was under.

An Austrian Interior Ministry group of experts presented a report to officials on Wednesday suggesting a complete ban on the annual gathering in Bleiburg in southern Austria which commemorates tens of thousands of Croatian Nazi-allied Ustasa troops and civilians who were killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in 1945.

The legal amendments address the problems of around 5,000 people whose parents were Croatian Serbs but were living in Serbia when they were born, when both Serbia and Croatia were part of Yugoslavia.

The Sejdic-Finci decision, which concerns the inability of Bosnian citizens who are not part of the constitutive triad (i.e. Bosniaks, Serbs, or Croats) to be elected to the sate presidency, has remained unimplemented for more than a decade - during which time two general elections have taken place in Bosnia.

Social media has made it easier for Croatian nationalists to attack opponents who speak publicly about controversial periods in the country's history.

A controversial annual mass gathering of Croats at Loibacher Feld near the Austrian town of Bleiburg, which has been accused of nurturing nationalist sentiments, is not expected to take place this weekend, Austrian police said on Thursday, after the event was also cancelled in 2020 because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Both then and now, Tudjman and Plenkovic, the 20th century nationalist and the moderate conservative, suffered from the same ailment - selective, deliberate amnesia.

Neither of them can remember - or bear to remember - Yugoslavia.

Erased: The die-hard Yugoslav behind the library