{"id":43599,"date":"2025-07-06T14:48:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-06T14:48:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43599\/"},"modified":"2025-07-06T14:48:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-06T14:48:12","slug":"croatian-right-wing-singer-marko-perkovic-and-fans-perform-pro-nazi-salute-at-massive-concert","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/43599\/","title":{"rendered":"Croatian right-wing singer Marko Perkovic and fans perform pro-Nazi salute at massive concert"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

One of Marko Perkovic\u2019s most popular songs, played in the late Saturday concert, starts with the dreaded \u201cFor the homeland \u2014 Ready!\u201d salute, used by Croatia\u2019s Nazi-era puppet Ustasha regime 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<\/a>, 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

\"CroatiaThousands attended the concert on Saturday.AP<\/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 troops in Croatia brutally killed tens of thousands of Serbs<\/a>, 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<\/a> 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

\"CroatiaReligious light art at the Marko Perkovic concert.AP<\/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<\/a> 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":"A hugely popular right-wing Croatian singer and hundreds of thousands of his fans performed a pro-Nazi World War…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":43600,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,50,52],"class_list":{"0":"post-43599","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-stories"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114806843243566209","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599","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=43599"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43599\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43600"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}