The Croatian ultra-nationalist mega-gig exposes the divided company

A “neo-fascist Croatian Woodstock” or a patriotic and anti-establishment pleasure?

Last month of the Mega Gig by the ultra -nationalist singer Thompson – The scene name of Marko Perkovic – considerably exposed the polarized divisions at the bottom of the Croatian company.

He highlighted extremely different interpretations of the country’s struggle for independence in the 1990s, and in the history of the independent state of Croatia (NDH), a state of Nazi puppets of the Second World War.

No one looks like the concert was something other than enormous. Thompson’s management said that more than half a million tickets for the show in Zagreb Hippodrome had been sold. The real presence was considerably lower – but still in hundreds of thousands.

This huge crowd joined with enthusiasm when Thompson launched in his opening number, čavoglave Battalion. At his cry of “Za Dom” (“for the fatherland”), the public rugged “Sprunni!” (“ready!”). The deputies of the HDZ party in power spoke among those who sang.

This song indignant opposition parties and organizations working for human rights and ethnic and regional reconciliation. They emphasize that “Za Dom, Sprunni” is from the anti -Semitic and allied Ustasha organization of Nazi during the Second World War – and that the Constitutional Court of Croatia ruled that the sentence “is a salvation Ustasha of independent Croatia (which is not) in agreement with the Constitution of the Republic of Croatia”.

“It opened Pandora’s Box,” said Documenta – Center for Trawing Banjeglav with the past, an organization that focuses on reconciliation by adopting a factual approach to the Second World War and the most recent war of independence.

“You now have politicians in the Parliament by screaming ‘Za Dom, Sprunni’. In the streets, the children sing not only this song, but other songs that Thompson sang that glorify mass crimes during the Second World War,” she said.

“The government creates an atmosphere when it is a positive thing. It creates a wave of nationalism that could explode in physical violence.”

The government in fact minimized the song during the concert. Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic described it as “part of the Thompson repertoire” and posed for a photo with the singer the day before the Zagreb concert.

The conservative commentator Matija Štahan thinks that Thompson’s time serving as a soldier during the war of independence gives him the right to use “Za Dom, Sprunni” in his work.

“It is an authentic outcry for freedom against attack,” he said.

“Many journalists in the West say it is the Croatian version of ‘Heil Hitler’ – but it would be better to describe it as the Croatian version of (Ukrainian national salvation) ‘Slava Ukraini’.

“The two gained importance in the context of the Second World War – which was a war for many small nations that wanted their own independent states,” said Štahan.

“Symbols change their meaning-and just like” Slava Ukraini “,” Za Dom, Sprunni “also means something different. Today, it is a nationalist anti-establishment slogan. It is against Croatic Political-Corrimal post-communist elite. Young people want to cry like something subversive.”

This interpretation does not cut any ice with the initiative of young people for human rights (Yihr), a regional organization that works for reconciliation between the young generations of the Western Balkans.

“It is clearly a fascist slogan,” said Yihr director in Croatia, Mario Mažić.

“As a member of the EU, Croatia should be an example for the rest of the region, but it has not dealt with the past. He identifies with the losing team during the Second World War, does not recognize that it was carried out from an unjust war in Bosnia and refuses to recognize the systematic crimes against the Serbs.”

Thompson organized another huge show at the beginning of August in Krajina, the bastion of Croatian Serbs during the War of Independence. This performance was one of the celebrations of the 30th anniversary of the Storm operation – the military battle which ended the war of independence of Croatia in Yugoslavia in the 1990s, but which also moved hundreds of thousands of Serbs.

In recent years, the government had started to include commemorations for Serbian victims. But reconciliation now seems to have a priority lower than the promotion of nationalist feeling, with a military parade in Zagreb the centerpiece of this year’s events.

“All of these things have become more visible since the United Kingdom has left the European Union-because with regard to anti-fascist values, it is only up to Germany to protect them,” explains the historian TVRTKO Jakovina.

Jakovina believes that this is practical for a government which seems to have no response to the many challenges that contemporary Croatia is confronted.

“During the summer of 2025, we are not talking about problems with our tourism, our climate change, our nonexistent industry, our higher education – or the demographic catastrophe that is looming,” he said.

“Instead, we are talking about the military parade and two concerts from Thompson.”