The police said that the organisers did not announce the rally to the Zagreb Police Department and failed to take necessary measures to ensure the public order during the gathering of several thousand antivaxxers and opponents of mandatory COVID certificates.
Zagreb Police Department official Davor Posilović said on Sunday that the police were intensively searching for the organisers of Saturday’s rally, as well as for attackers on an RTL television reporter who was covering the demonstration.
Steps are being taken to identify potential organisers and take appropriate action against them, Posilović told a press conference in Zagreb on Sunday afternoon. He added that pyrotechnic devices had been used during the rally, the organisers failed to bring security guards and the decision on the restriction of public assembly was breached.
A report on verbal and physical violence against RTL reporter Goran Latković has been lodged with the police in the meantime. CCTV and video footage of the incident will be examined to identify the perpetrators and the police will interview all witnesses.
On Saturday evening, a group of protesters led by Marko Francišković marched from Zagreb’s central square to the headquarters of the HRT public broadcaster, calling for an end to “censorship” by the HRT.
Dissatisfied with the way the HRT covered their protest in the main square, the protesters shouted “We want elections”, “Referendum and people’s rule”, “Thieves”, “Treason”, “God’s law is above all laws”, demanding to see the HRT director and have their rally covered live. “This is no vaccine, this is poison”, someone in the crowd could be heard saying while some protesters said the world was ruled by “Bill Gates, Talmudists and Soros’s followers”.
The protesters were met by riot police, with a dozen police vehicles blocking access to the HRT building.
