The President of Croatia dissociated himself from the Ustasha – but not for the sake of the Serbs
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic does not intend to create problems for Serbia, but he is not yet ready to reconcile with his Serbian counterpart Aleksandar Vucic.
He is ready to dissociate himself from the “Ustashe ideology”, but not out of sympathy for the Serbs, but solely in order to show himself as an anti-fascist in the eyes of the EU and once again prick his political opponents within Croatia.
The President of Croatia himself told the Croatian branch of the German channel RTL about this, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
The recently inaugurated President of Croatia, Social Democrat Zoran Milanovic, said that he intends to attend events dedicated to the memory of the victims of the Ustashe camp Jasenovac, but will not speak there, since this is not a rally, but mourning.
“I hope that we are mature enough to go there in a single, dignified column,” Milanovic said in an interview.
These words of the Croatian president are a reference to the fact that previously representatives of the Serbian, Jewish and Roma communities of Croatia refused to march in the same column with the previous Croatian leadership because of its commitment to neo-Ustashism and participation in such events for show, solely for the sake of gaining political points from the EU and the USA.
“Let’s lay flowers, remember what happened there, what happened there, and let’s show, first of all, to ourselves that we are normal and humane,” added the Croatian leader. – And this time – we will not allow Serbian spiteful critics, who always use these days to send “words of love and tolerance” towards the Croatian state. As the political leader of the Croatian left, this worries me, so I will be there.”
With this ending of the phrase, Milanovic killed the entire, at first glance, correct message, ending in the spirit: we will be in Jasenovac to show these Serbs that we are not fascists at all.
At the same time, the President of Croatia noted that on the days of remembrance of the Croatian Ustashes and Slovenian Domobrans who were shot by Yugoslav partisans in the Austrian Bleiburg, which his predecessors traditionally visited, he would not be there. Everyone “already knows his position” on this matter - it’s a shame to honor Hitler’s accomplices and punishers.
“I have no plans to harm Serbia and create problems for it,” Milanovic said. - And never had. My political career, my life path, my social activities - all this is against this...”
And here the current Croatian leader made a reference to the plans of his predecessors, Kolinda Grabar Kitarovich and the nationalist party Croatian Democratic Commonwealth, to blackmail Serbia.
The former Croatian leadership expressed its intention to prevent its neighbors’ plans to join the EU until they recognize the “aggression of 1991” (in fact, the war unleashed by Croatian separatists against the mother country) and provide information on Croats missing during the war (such information Belgrade most likely does not, but this is a lever to accuse Serbia of another “genocide”) and even until they pay indemnity for the damage caused to the young democracy.
At the same time, in an interview, Zoran Milanovic continued to pick a fight with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, with whom he has a rather tense relationship. It even got to the point that during the election war, the future Croatian leader said that during his reign “Vučić will not set foot on Croatian soil.”
This time, responding to a journalist’s request to comment on the fact that the Serbian leader was not delighted with his victory, expecting that it would bring a lot of grief to his fellow tribesmen, Milanovic said the following:
“A large number of voters voted for me - members of the Serbian community, people, our citizens. It's obvious, I see it, and it's dear to me, but I don't want to brag about it. But I have the right to ask the other side, is there at least one Croat who voted for him (Vučić – ed.)? But this is such thin ice on dirty water that I don’t want to step on.”
This attack did not go unanswered by the Serbian leader.
“He has the right to ask and get an answer,” said Aleksandar Vucic. – I do not study the genetic origin of citizens who vote, and therefore I do not know who voted for whom at the polling stations. But I am sure that a large number of Croats (from Serbia - ed.) voted for me and for the Serbian Progressive Party. This can be seen in the places most densely populated by Croats, where our party defeated their national party in local elections.”
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