The protest in the city’s central Trg Bana Josipa Jelačića square started around 3 p.m. when two columns of marchers, who previously gathered in two other squares, Trg Francuske republike and Trg žrtava fašizma, came together in the central square. Police escorted them to the central square.
The rally ended around 5.30 p.m. when the organisers called on the protesters to disperse peacefully.
However, some of the protesters headed towards the public broadcaster HRT’s headquarters instead, where they sang patriotic songs and demanded to talk to the HRT leadership and be interviewed live.
No major incidents were reported during the protest in the central square, however, RTL television reporter Goran Latković was attacked and a group of protesters took an Al-Jazeera reporter’s microphone.
As the protesters were shouting “No to certificates”, “Crisis team, leave” and “Plenković, leave”, speakers addressed the rally one by one, warning that COVID-19 certificates heralded open totalitarianism.
Protester Andrija Klarić, who addressed the rally first, said the protesters came from all parts of the country. “There are no divisions, no left or right, we are all one.”
At his invitation, the protesters symbolically voted in two laws abolishing COVID-19 certificates and prohibiting the adoption of new laws on the certificates.
A man who greeted the protesters on behalf of students said that students had been with their people in 1971, 1991 and 2021, warning that the country was threatened by one of the worst kinds of totalitarianism ever and asking Prime Minister Andrej Plenković why he was hiding behind the coronavirus crisis management team.
“You were not given your freedom by Plenković or his crisis management team, nobody gave you your freedom and nobody can take it from you,” he said.
The next speaker, who said that she was a doctor, called the testing for coronavirus war profiteering and opposed “fascism and segregation”.
One of the speakers said that citizens were being denied freedoms and human rights and that that would only contribute to the spreading of COVID-19 among the most vulnerable groups.
“We are all different but we have the same goal – a free Croatia,” he said, advocating the freedom of choice.
Some of the protesters waved Croatian flags and carried banners with messages such as “I believe scientist Gordan Lauc”, “No to blind belief in authorities”, “Live and let others live”, “For freedom and freedom of choice”.
They called for abolishing COVID-19 certificates, claiming that citizens who do not have the certificates are being unconstitutionally and unlawfully excluded from public life and prevented from going to work or school.
