This week, around 50 young people dressed in black prevented youth from Novi Sad from performing in Split. They shouted hate messages and the Ustasha salute “Ready for the homeland.” All politicians condemned this behavior. The three individuals questioned by the police are members of the local branch of the “Democratic Movement” party, which praised the “brave actions of the young people” in black shirts.
On episodes of PERSPEKTIVA, from nine and seven years ago, young people from Zagreb and Vukovar discussed hatred and the media that incites it.
“We should all focus on solving the problems we have as young people, not the problems others impose on us, like hatred, or the war that happened so many years ago. We shouldn’t forget, but we should let go and think about issues like unemployment, or why young people in Croatia are increasingly leaving for places like Germany, Ireland, or even Canada. ”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo_wqxOgpAQ
“People don’t understand what they actually need to understand. Newspapers and media reflect certain attitudes that are then imposed as generally valid in society. In this way, radicalism, both left and right, is maintained, which ultimately leads to a situation where unimportant things become important. And these unimportant things sustain the daily political scene in Croatia”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo_wqxOgpAQ
Viktor wonders whether Croatia could have done more to reduce antagonism.
“I think it’s time to ask the question: Why? Why are Croats so antagonistic toward their peers or compatriots from neighboring countries, more than they are toward us?”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo_wqxOgpAQ
“The main reason someone uses to justify their hatred toward others is by saying: Do you know what they did to us in such and such a year? The focus is always on what someone did to us, even though no one is really certain about the facts. No one stops to consider what we may have done to others. I think it would be very educational and useful if we, as Serbs, visited Srebrenica or Vukovar, or if Croatian nationalists visited the camps, and so on. I believe that would create a different perspective on everything, making many things clearer. You’d also realize that the people you claim are always in the right also did some bad things.“
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov_TfaZ9zaY
“We shouldn’t even think about hating Serbs, especially us Croats, fighting with them just because someone once pointed a finger and said, ‘They’re the enemy’.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eo_wqxOgpAQ
Young people in Croatia and elsewhere think and know that the problem isn’t diversity. The problem is something else.
“The problem is not diversity; the problem is pointing fingers at diversity.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-druga-epizoda- zagreb/28364868.html
“The point of tolerance is to accept diversity, without trying to equalize and eliminate the differences.”
https://www.slobodnaevropa.org/a/perspektiva-druga-epizoda- zagreb/28364868.html
The opposition in Croatia claims that similar, even worse, incidents will continue unless the authorities take drastic measures to punish such behavior and find those responsible for spreading hatred. The hatred in Split did not occur in a vacuum; it is the result of tolerating smaller, but similar, incidents. That is why it cannot be considered an “incident of a microlocal character,” as defined by Croatian Prime Minister, Andrej Plenkovic.
