{"id":43450,"date":"2025-07-06T13:25:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T13:25:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43450\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T13:25:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T13:25:10","slug":"croatian-singer-and-fans-perform-pro-nazi-salute-at-massive-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43450\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatian singer and fans perform pro-Nazi salute at massive concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) \u2014 A hugely popular right-wing Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans<\/a> performed a pro-Nazi World War II salute<\/a> at a massive concert in Zagreb, drawing criticism. <\/p>\n

One of Marko Perkovic\u2019s most popular songs, played in the late Staurday concert, starts with the dreaded \u201cFor the homeland \u2014 Ready!\u201d salute, used by Croatia\u2019s<\/a> Nazi-era puppet Ustasha regime<\/a> that ran concentration camps at the time. <\/p>\n

Perkovic, whose stage name is Thompson after a U.S.-made machine gun, had previously said both the song and the salute focus on the 1991-95 ethnic war in Croatia, in which he fought using the American firearm, after the country declared independence from the former Yugoslavia. He says his controversial song is \u201ca witness of an era.\u201d <\/p>\n

The 1990s conflict erupted when rebel minority Serbs, backed by neighboring Serbia, took up guns, intending to split from Croatia and unite with Serbia.<\/p>\n

Perkovic\u2019s immense popularity in Croatia reflects prevailing nationalist sentiments in the country 30 years after the war ended. <\/p>\n

The WWII Ustasha<\/a> troops in Croatia brutally killed tens of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma and antifascist Croats in a string of concentration camps in the country. Despite documented atrocities, some nationalists still view the Ustasha regime leaders as founders of the independent Croatian state.<\/p>\n

Organizers said that half a million people attended Perkovic\u2019s concert in the Croatian capital. Video footage aired by Croatian media showed many fans displaying pro-Nazi salutes earlier in the day.<\/p>\n

The salute is punishable by law in Croatia, but courts have ruled Perkovic can use it as part of his song, the Croatian state television HRT said. <\/p>\n

Perkovic has been banned from performing in some European cities over frequent pro-Nazi references and displays at his gigs. <\/p>\n

Croatia\u2019s Vecernji List daily wrote that the concert\u2019s \u201csupreme organization\u201d has been overshadowed by the use of the salute of a regime that signed off on \u201cmass executions of people.\u201d <\/p>\n

Regional N1 television noted that whatever the modern interpretations of the salute may be its roots are \u201cundoubtedly\u201d in the Ustasha regime era. <\/p>\n

N1 said that while \u201cGermans have made a clear cut\u201d from anything Nazi-related \u201cto prevent crooked interpretations and the return to a dark past … Croatia is nowhere near that in 2025.\u201d <\/p>\n

In neighboring Serbia, populist President Aleksandar Vucic criticized Perkovic\u2019s concerts as a display \u201cof support for pro-Nazi values.\u201d Former Serbian liberal leader Boris Tadic said it was a \u201cgreat shame for Croatia\u201d and \u201cthe European Union\u201d because the concert \u201cglorifies the killing of members of one nation, in this case Serbian.\u201d<\/p>\n

Croatia joined the EU in 2013.<\/p>\n

Croatian police said Perkovic\u2019s concert was the biggest ever in the country and an unseen security challenge, deploying thousands of officers. <\/p>\n

No major incidents were reported. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) \u2014 A hugely popular right-wing Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans performed…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43451,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[33992,33991,32868,32872,171,8697,57,32869,33993,2938,67,132,68,107],"class_list":{"0":"post-43450","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-entertainment","8":"tag-aleksandar-vucic","9":"tag-boris-tadic","10":"tag-croatia","11":"tag-croatia-government","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-european-union","14":"tag-general-news","15":"tag-marko-perkovic","16":"tag-nationalism","17":"tag-prisons","18":"tag-united-states","19":"tag-unitedstates","20":"tag-us","21":"tag-world-news"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114806516884715259","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43450","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43450"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43450\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43451"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43450"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43450"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43450"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}