At issue is a war memorial which has recently been unveiled in Jasenovac.
HDZ president and Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday night that he wanted to resolutely reject insinuations about fascistization of Croatian society, saying that it was a delicate matter that the disputed memorial had been unveiled in Jasenovac, adding that he would seek a legislative solution that would regulate issues which refer to totalitarian regimes, because so far that matter had not been resolved in an appropriate manner, reports Večernji List on December 6, 2016.
At issue is a memorial erected by the Association of HOS Volunteers in the memory of its members who were killed during the Homeland War in the 1990s. The association’s logo includes the inscription “Za Dom Spremni” (“For Homeland Ready”), which was also used during the Second World War by the Independent State of Croatia, a puppet state established by Germans and Italians. Jasenovac was the location of a large concentration camp where over 80,000 Jews, Serbs and antifascist Croats were killed during the Second World War.
“First of all, I want to clearly and firmly reject all insinuations about fascization of the Croatian society. That is not true. There are certain phenomena which do not constitute a trend. I express reverence for all the victims of the Ustasha camp in Jasenovac. I also express reverence for the 11 members of HOS who died for Croatia”, said Plenković commenting on the memorial in Jasenovac.
Plenković added that it was “of course, a delicate matter that this memorial has been erected in Jasenovac”, emphasizing that “the logo of the association has received the approval of the authorities of the City of Zagreb, with the consent of the Ministry of Public Administration in the government which was at the time led by SDP”.
Plenković said that the situation with the memorial in Jasenovac “proves that we have not in an adequate manner determined a legislative framework and laws when it comes to totalitarian systems”. He announced that he would therefore “like to launch an institutional initiative which would regulate this issue in an appropriate way”. The Prime Minister expects that experts and all political actors will give their contribution. “We will seek a legislative solution because at this moment we have no a mechanism for resolving this issue”, concluded Plenković.
In recent days, the memorial has become one of the major issues in Croatian politics, with representatives of Jewish and Serb associations, as well as many NGOs, demanding that the memorial be removed.
