Croatian court allows right-wing singer to shout Nazi salute
The Supreme Administrative Court of Croatia did not see anything reprehensible in the Ustashe motto “Ready for the Fatherland!” (Za Dom spremni!), used by the country's famous far-right singer Marko "Thompson" Perkovic during his performance of the hit "Battalion Čavoglave".
Balkan media reported this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
Fourteen of the nineteen judges of the Supreme Administrative Court of the Republic of Croatia voted that the Ustashe motto at the beginning of the song “Cavoglave Battalion” was not illegal, four were in favor of banning the Nazi conscription in any interpretation, and one judge abstained from voting . Thus, with its decision, the court confirmed a similar verdict issued last year.
At the beginning of his career, “Thompson” was not shy about posing publicly
“After the decision of the Supreme Administrative Court of Croatia that the Ustasha greeting Za Dom spremni! at Thompson's concerts is allowed, it is only a matter of time before the portrait of Pavelic (the Führer (Poglavnik) of the Ustashe Independent State of Croatia during the Second World War - ed.) will be returned to parliament and the shahovnitsa flag of the NDH - the current Croatian flag (the shahovnitsa is the national symbol of Croatia, a shield consisting made of red and white cells, and the checkerboard of present-day Croatia differs from the NDH in the alternation of these cells - ed.), - Serbian Defense Minister Alexander Vulin commented on the incident to the Croatian publication Jutarnji list.
The song “Cavoglave Battalion” was written by driver and unknown amateur rocker Perković in 1991, when he joined the National Guard unit of his home village of Cavoglave.
Over the years, Perkovic's views, which made him popular in Croatian society, have not changed
In this simple song, which is a pseudo-folklore chanson in a rock arrangement (which later became the author’s signature style), he calls on the “Croat brothers” to unite to fight the “Chetniks” (Serbs), whom their judgment will overtake in Serbia itself. After the broadcast of this song on the radio of the city of Split, “Thompson” (the pseudonym was chosen in honor of the submachine gun of the same name) came to national fame.
At Thompson concerts, young people dress up in Ustasha symbols
Since then, Marko "Thompson" Perkovic has been building his repertory mainly on patriotic songs, and since patriotism in Croatia for the last half century has been based on Ustasheism, xenophobia and Serbophobia, the singer constantly uses Ustashe symbols and calls in his concerts, and also often performs Ustashe songs in modern adaptation, glorifying, among other things, the terrible concentration camp Jasenovac. Concerts of the artist - the favorite singer of ex-President of Croatia Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic - are traditionally attended by audiences in Ustasha uniforms, and his concerts in other European countries have recently begun forbid.
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