Citizens Unite in Croatia to Resist Ustasha Revival and Far-Right Extremism

Several thousand people gathered in Croatia’s capital, Zagreb, on Sunday for an anti-fascist march aimed at countering the country’s rising far-right sentiment and efforts to revise the history of World War II. The demonstrators voiced concern over the increasing visibility of nationalist groups, incidents targeting the ethnic Serb minority, and the use of pro-Nazi Ustasha symbols in public.

In recent months, right-wing nationalists have grown bolder. In early November, masked men disrupted a Serb cultural event in Split, performing the Ustasha salute. Earlier, a July concert in Zagreb by ultra-nationalist singer Marko Perkovic, known as Thompson, drew hundreds of thousands. The performer’s popular songs feature the salute, and some attendees display affiliated symbols. Following the concert, two MPs replicated the salute in parliament, while an October round table downplayed the scale of Croatia’s World War II death camp victims.

Organizers of Sunday’s march declared that fascists are no longer hiding and called for resistance against “violence, historical revisionism, and intimidation.” Protester Kristijan Kralj, an electrical engineering student, highlighted the danger of the Ustasha ideology’s resurgence. The original Ustasha regime, a Nazi puppet state, had persecuted and killed hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and anti-fascist Croats. Modern sympathizers, however, sometimes portray them as foundational national figures.

Marchers carried a giant banner reading “United against Fascism” and chanted “We are all anti-fascists” as they proceeded through central Zagreb on a cold, sunny day. Similar demonstrations took place in Rijeka, Pula, and Zadar along the Adriatic coast.

The anti-fascist rallies followed a series of extremist incidents in November targeting Serb cultural events in Zagreb and Split, raising fears of ethnic violence decades after the 1991–95 Serb-Croat war. Extremist groups have also attacked liberal politicians, foreign workers, and other communities, frequently using the Ustasha salute, “For the homeland — Ready,” during protests.

At the Zadar march, organizer Iva Davorija said young men in black clothing disrupted the rally by throwing firecrackers and red paint, yet authorities have been slow to intervene. Analysts note that Croatia’s shift to the right began after Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic’s conservatives formed a coalition with a far-right party in last year’s election, leaving an ethnic Serb party outside the government for the first time in years. The trend intensified with mass events celebrating far-right figures like Thompson.

Prime Minister Plenkovic has denied ignoring the rise of extremist sentiment, accusing leftist opponents of exaggerating the threat and inflaming divisions. Croatia’s historical and political context is central to the tensions: after World War II, it was part of communist Yugoslavia, which disintegrated in the 1990s, leading to nationalist wars in which more than 10,000 people died. Croatia joined NATO in 2009 and the European Union in 2013.

The Sunday protests underscored widespread public concern about far-right extremism, historical revisionism, and threats to minority communities. Demonstrators emphasized their commitment to defending democratic values and preserving an accurate understanding of Croatia’s past, while rejecting the glorification of symbols tied to one of the darkest chapters of the country’s history.