Croatia and Anti-fascism: Does it still make sense to connect these two words

By Haris Ljevo

The recent report by the US State Department on human rights and freedoms in the world angered right-wingers in Croatia, who called the American assessment of the growing rise of Ustaše ideology in Croatia as "left-wing propaganda".

Is it left-wing propaganda or the real situation on the ground? When one looks at the facts and everything that happens daily in Croatia, the conclusion is simply that the State Department's report on the rise of Ustaše ideology is completely justified, and that it is not propaganda at all.

The Croatian government has been negotiating for a long time with the most radical right-wingers to remove the plaque with the Ustaše salute "Za dom spremni" (Ready for the homeland) from one of the most infamous camps of World War II, Jasenovac.

Plenković's government did not have the courage to confront the people who do not hide, but publicly promote, the Ustaše ideology. In the end, they just found common ground, so the plaque with the Ustaše salute was moved a few kilometers from Jasenovac to Novska.

Before that, the capital of Croatia abolished Marshal Tito Square, which bore the name of the leader of one of the greatest anti-fascist movements in Europe during World War II.

For years, the Croatian Parliament has been sponsoring commemorations in Bleiburg, where, allegedly, respect is paid to innocent Croatian victims of World War II, but in reality, it is a lament for the members of the Ustaše movement whose "greatest life's work" was the camp in Jasenovac and tens of thousands of innocent people killed.

The funeral of Slavko Goldstein, one of the symbols of anti-fascism in this region, perhaps best showed the face of current Croatian politics.

One of the greatest publicists and historians in Europe was buried on Friday at the Mirogoj cemetery in Zagreb, with a large number of prominent figures present.

However, among the several hundred attendees, there was not a single representative from the Croatian Government, Parliament, or the Catholic Church, sending a clear message about the official stance of Croatia towards anti-fascism.

Goldstein was a man who spent his entire life fighting fascism, dedicating himself entirely to the fight for truth and justice, and wrote dozens of books about the terrible period of Ustaše rule in World War II.

Every word he spoke and wrote provoked sharp reactions from the right-wing segment of Croatia.

The absence of representatives of the Croatian authorities at his funeral showed the true face of today's Croatia.