Far-right politics in Croatia

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

A photograph that was circulated on social media of a group of Dinamo Zagreb fans holding lighted flares and a banner with an obscene anti-Serb slogan has provoked outrage.

"There does not seem to be a rock bottom," Dario Brentin, associated researcher from the University of Graz in Austria, an expert on sport and nationalism in Croatia, wrote on Twitter on Friday.

The Court of High Misdemeanours in Zagreb on Wednesday ruled that the controversial nationalist singer Marko Perkovic, widely known as Thompson, did not violate public order and breach then peace with his use of the chant "Za dom spremni" ("Ready for the homeland") in his song Bojna Cavoglave.

Serbian ambassador Vladimir Bozovic outside the Foreign Ministry in Podgorica. Photo: Government of Montenegro.

Bozovic said after the meeting at the ministry he had no intention of interfering in RTCG's editorial policies.

"I respect the state of Montenegro. But like all Serbian people, I am especially sensitive about the fascist Ustasa movement," Bozovic told media.

'Defenders of the homeland'

War veterans' associations and Croatia's war veterans' minister have condemned President Zoran Milanovic for saying that a controversial plaque with the Ustasa slogan 'Za dom spremni' ('Ready for the Home(land)') should be removed.

"These are individuals, perhaps organised, but they are not the fruit of some climate in society, they are deviations that need to be dealt with based on individual responsibility," Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said on Wednesday.

Plenkovic added that the government "won't be sucked into a spiral of hate".

Croatian Ombudsperson Lora Vidovic on Tuesday said that if police failed to initiate legal action against former members of a paramilitary unit, who on Monday celebrated the anniversary of Operation Storm by chanting the Fascist slogan "Za dom spremni", it will be a blatant violation of the legal order.

But why did the boycotts start in 2016 - why exactly that year? Did it maybe coincide with the Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, taking power in Croatia?

Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic's sudden changes of heart about a World War II salute used by the Ustasa movement reflect her desperate wish to please the international community, which has been criticising Croatia over historical revisionism, and a right-wing constituency that has supported her through four years of her presidency, experts say.