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Anti-Croat sentiment orCroatophobia (Croatian:Hrvatofobija) is discrimination or prejudice againstCroats as anethnic group, also consisting of negative feelings towardsCroatia as a country.
Some of the earliest tensions between the Croatian and Serbian people were documented in the mid-19th century, during the nation-building process. Serbian Prime MinisterIlija Garašanin'sNačertanije (1844), initially a secret document, claimed lands that were inhabited byBulgarians,Macedonians,Albanians,Montenegrins,Bosniaks,Hungarians, andCroats as a part of Serbia.[1]: 3 Garašanin's plan also included methods ofspreading Serbian influence in the claimed lands.[1]: 3–4 He proposed ways to influence Croats, who Garašanin regarded as "Serbs ofCatholic faith."[1]: 3 [1]: 3–4 In 1901,Serbian Orthodox bishopNikodim Milaš published the influential work Pravoslavna Dalmacija, in which he, among others, claimed that the Croatian historical lands and historical-sacral heritage were Serbian since the Early Middle Ages.[2][3]
Vuk Karadžić and other early Slavists considered everyone speakingShtokavian dialects to be ethnic Serbs. Hence, the literary and standardCroatian language and heritage, based on Shtokavian, was to be a part of theSerbian language, and all Shtokavian-speaking Croats were counted as "Catholic Serbs."Chakavian was considered by them to be the only original Croatian language, sometimes alsoKajkavian which was theoretically related to theSlovenes, and sometimes none dialect (grouping Chakavian with Shtokavian as the Serbian language), reducing Croats to merely a toponym.[4][5]Croatia was at the time a kingdom in theHabsburg monarchy, withDalmatia andIstria being separateHabsburg crown lands.[6]
AfterAustria-Hungary occupiedBosnia and Herzegovina in 1878 andSerbia gained its independence from theOttoman Empire, Croatian and Serbian relations deteriorated as both sides had pretensions on Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1902, there was a reprinted article written by the SerbNikola Stojanović that was published in the publication of theSerb Independent Party fromZagreb titledDo istrage vaše ili naše (Till the Destruction, Ours or Yours). The article denied the existence of a Croat nation, and forecast the result of the "inevitable" Serbian-Croatian conflict.
That combat has to be led till the destruction, either ours or yours. One side must succumb. That side will be Croatians, due to their minority, geographical position, mingling with Serbs and because the process of evolution means Serbdom is equal to progress.[7]
— Nikola Stojanović,Srbobran, 10 August 1902
During the 19th century, someItalian radical nationalists tried to promote the idea that the Croatian nation has no sound reason to exist: therefore the Slavic population on the east coast of theAdriatic Sea (Croats andSlovenes) should beItalianized, and the territory be included inItaly.[8]
Anew state was established in late 1918. The Kingdom underwent a crucial change in 1921 to the dismay of Croatia's largest political party, theCroatian Peasant Party (Hrvatska seljačka stranka). The new constitution abolished historical/political entities, including Croatia and Slavonia, centralizing authority in the capital ofBelgrade.Nikola Pašić believed that Yugoslavia should be as centralized as possible, creating aGreater Serbian national concept of concentrated power in the hands of Belgrade in place of distinct regional governments and identities.[9]
During a Parliament session in 1928,Puniša Račić, a deputy of the Serbian Radical People's Party, shot at Croatian deputies, resulting in the killing ofPavle Radić andĐuro Basariček and the wounding ofIvan Pernar and Ivan Granđa.Stjepan Radić, a Croatian political champion at the time, was wounded and later succumbed to his wounds. These multiple murders caused the outrage of the Croatian population and ignited violent demonstrations, strikes, and armed conflicts throughout Croatian parts of the country.
In response to the shooting at the National Assembly,King Alexander abolished the parliamentary system and proclaimed aroyal dictatorship. He imposed anew constitution aimed at removing all existing national identities and imposing "integral Yugoslavism". He also renamed the country from the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes to theKingdom of Yugoslavia. Political parties were banned and the royal dictatorship took on an increasingly harsh character. In 1931, the royal regime organized the assassination of Croatian scientist and intellectualMilan Šufflay on the streets of Zagreb. The assassination was condemned by globally renowned intellectuals such asAlbert Einstein andHeinrich Mann.[10]
Fascist-led Italianization, or the forced assimilation of Italian culture on the ethnic Croat communities inhabiting the former Austro-Hungarian territories of theJulian March and areas ofDalmatia, as well as ethnically mixed cities in Italy proper, such asTrieste, had already been initiated prior toWorld War II. Theanti-Slavic sentiment, perpetuated byItalian fascism, led to the persecution of Croats, alongside ethnic Slovenes, on ethnic and cultural grounds.
In September 1920, Mussolini said:
When dealing with such a race asSlavic –inferior and barbaric – we must not pursue the carrot, but the stick policy. We should not be afraid of new victims. The Italian border should run across theBrenner Pass,Monte Nevoso, and theDinaric Alps. I would say we can easily sacrifice 500,000 barbaric Slavs for 50,000 Italians.
— Benito Mussolini, speech held inPula, 20 September 1920[11]
This period of fascist Italianization included the banning of theCroatian language in administration and courts between 1923 and 1925,[12] the Italianization of Croat first and last names in 1926,[13][14] and the dissolution of Croatian societies, financial co-operatives and banks.[15] Hundreds of Croatian-speaking schools were closed by the state.[16]
On 13 July 1920, Italian fascists attacked the Croatian National House inPula, destroying property belonging to various Croatian societies and burning around 7,000 books written in the Croatian language. The incident was one of the first fascist book burnings in Europe.[17]
Between February and April 1921, Croats in Istria became victims of Italian fascist terror during the period offascist and anti-fascist violence in Italy.[18] In response to theProština rebellion, led by Croat Anti-fascists and local peasants, hundreds of ItalianSquadrismo militia,Black Shirts, as well as members of the local army and police, attacked the Croat villages of Proština,Krnica,Marčana andŠegotići, in order to intimidate the Croat population. The fascists burned Šegotići completely to the ground, while houses in the other villages were also burned. 400 peasants were arrested and imprisoned inPula, several peasants died after being beaten to death.[18][19]
This period was therefore characterised as "centralising, oppressive and dedicated to the forcible Italianisation of the minorities"[20] consequently leading to a strong emigration and assimilations of Slovenes and Croats from the Julian March.[21]
Following theAxisinvasion of Yugoslavia in April 1941,Italy occupied almost all ofDalmatia, as well asGorski Kotar and the Italian government made stringent efforts to further Italianize the region. Italian occupying forces were accused of committingwar crimes in order to transform occupied territories into ethnic Italian territories.[22] An example of this was the 1942 massacre inPodhum, when Italian forces murdered up to 118 Croat civilians and deported the remaining population to concentration camps.[23]
The Italian government operatedconcentration camps[24] for tens of thousands Slavic citizens, such asRab concentration camp and one on the island ofMolat, where thousands died, including hundreds of children.[citation needed]
According to statistics collected through 1946 by the Commission for War Damages on the Territory of thePeople’s Republic of Croatia, Italian authorities with their collaborators killed 30,795 civilians (not including those killed in concentration camps and prisons) in Dalmatia, Istria, Gorski Kotar and the Croatian Littoral.[25]
Nazi Germanracial theories towards the Croats were inconsistent and contradictory. On the one hand, the Nazis described the Croats officially as being "more Germanic than Slav", a notion propagated by Croatia's fascist dictatorAnte Pavelić who imposed the view that the "Croatians were the descendants of the ancientGoths" who "had thePanslav idea forced upon them as something artificial".[26]
However, the Nazi regime continued to classify Slavs asUntermensch, despite inclusion of Slavs such as Russians, Ukrainians, Czechs, Serbs, Bosnians and Croats in SS divisions.[27]
Furthermore, according to the book "Hitler's Table Talk", a collection of monologues byAdolf Hitler and conversations he had with close associates in the period from 1941 to 1944, Hitler mentioned that "Croats are desirable, from the ethnical point of view, and should be germanized. But there, however, were political reasons which completely preclude any such measures".[28]
After theAnschluss of 1938, AustrianBurgenland Croats faced Germanization and were forced by the Nazi regime to assimilate. Minority rights that had been approved in 1937, such as Croatian language schools and bilingualism, were abolished under Nazi rule.[29]
Between 1941 and 1945, some 200,000[30] Croatian citizens of the NDH (including ethnic Croats as well as ethnic Serbs with Croatian nationality and Slovenes) were sent to Germany to work as a slave and forced labourers, mostly working in mining, agriculture and forestry. It is estimated that 153,000 of these labourers were said to have been "voluntarily" recruited, however in many instances this was not the case, as the workers that may have initially volunteered were forced to work longer hours and were paid less than their contracts had stipulated, they were also not allowed to return home after their yearly contract had ended, at which point their labour was no longer voluntary, but forced. Forced and slave labour were also conducted in Nazi concentration camps, such as inBuchenwald andMittelbau-Dora.[31]
From 1941 to 1945, 3.8% of the population of Croatia had been sent to the Reich to work, which was higher than the European average.[31]
As in other parts ofYugoslavia, Nazi German forces committed several war crimes against Croat civilians in reprisal for the actions of theYugoslav Partisans. Examples of such policies include theMassacre of villages under Kamešnica and the massacre in the village ofLipa, while others were deported to and killed in German concentration camps. At least 7,000 Croat civilians from the territory of the Independent State of Croatia were killed by Nazi German forces, in acts of terror or in concentration camps.[32]
Regarding the realization of hisGreater Serbian programHomogeneous Serbia,Stevan Moljević wrote in his letter toDragiša Vasić in February 1942:[33]
(...) 2) Regarding our internal affairs, the demarcation with the Croats, we hold that we should as soon as an opportunity occurs, gather all the strength and create a completed act: occupy territories marked on the map, clean it before anyone pulls itself together. We would assume that the occupation would only be carried out if the main hubs were strong inOsijek,Vinkovci,Slavonski Brod,Sunja,Karlovac,Knin,Šibenik,Mostar andMetković, and then from within starts with an [ethnic] cleansing of all non-Serb elements. The guilty should have an open way – Croats to Croatia,Muslims to Turkey (or Albania). As for the Muslims, ourgovernment inLondon should immediately address the issue with Turkey. TheEnglish will also help us. (Question is!). The organization for the interior cleansing should be prepared immediately, and it could be because there are many refugees in Serbia from all "Serb lands" (...).
The tactics employed against the Croats were at least to an extent, a reaction to theterror carried out by the Ustashas, but Croats andMuslims living in areas intended to be part of Greater Serbia were to be cleansed of non-Serbs regardless, in accordance withDraža Mihailović's directive of 20 December 1941.[34] However the largestChetnik massacres took place in easternBosnia where they preceded any significant Ustasha operations.[35] Chetnik ethnic cleansing targeted Croat civilians throughout areas of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, in which Croats were massacred and expelled, such as theKrnjeuša,Gata,Makarska andKulen Vakuf massacres, among many others. According to the Croatian historian,Vladimir Žerjavić, Chetnik forces killed between 18,000 and 32,000 Croats duringWorld War II, mostly civilians.[36] Some historians regard Chetnik actions during this period as constituting genocide.[37][38][39]
Written evidence by Chetnik commanders indicates that terrorism against the non-Serb population was mainly intended to establish an ethnically pure Greater Serbia in the historical territory of other ethnic groups (most notably Croatian and Muslim, but also Bulgarian,Romanian, Hungarian, Macedonian and Montenegrin).[citation needed] InElaborate of theChetnik's Dinaric Battalion from March 1942, it's stated that the Chetniks' main goal was to create a "Serbian national state in the areas in which the Serbs live, and even those to which Serbs aspire (Bosnia and Herzegovina,Lika and part of Dalmatia) where "onlyOrthodox population would live".[33] It is also stated that Bosniaks should be convinced that Serbs are their allies, so they wouldn't join thePartisans, and then kill them."[40][better source needed]
Regarding the campaign, Chetnik commander Milan Šantić said inTrebinje in July 1942, "The Serb lands must be cleansed from Catholics andMuslims. They will be inhabited only by the Serbs. Cleansing will be carried out thoroughly, and we will suppress and destroy them all without exception and without pity, which will be the starting point for our liberation.[41] Mihailović went further than Moljević and requested over 90 percent of theNDH's territory, where more than 2,500,000 Catholics and over 800,000 Muslims lived (70 percent of the total population, with Orthodox Serbs the remaining 30 percent).[41]
According toBajo Stanišić, the final goal of the Chetniks was the "founding of a new Serbian state, not a geographical term but a purely Serbian, with four basic attributes: the Serbian state [Greater Serbia], theSerb King [of] theKarađorđević dynasty, Serbian nationality, and Serbian faith. The Balkan federation is also the next stage, but the main axis and leadership of this federation must be our Serbian state, that is, the Greater Serbia.[42]
In 1891, Croatian archeologistLujo Marun found a sarcophagus of a 9th century Croatian duke in a villageBiskupija nearKnin.[43] These remains were later identified to most likely belong toBranimir of Croatia.[43] On the next day, a group of people reportedly re-opened the grave and vandalized the remains.[43] In 1983, someone vandalized a 9th century Croatian pre-RomanesqueChurch of Holy Salvation inCetina by destroyingCroatian interlace ornaments on it, in order to remove the proof of its old-Croatian origin.[44]
AfterSerbian PresidentSlobodan Milošević's assumption of power in 1989, various Chetnik groups made a "comeback"[45] and his regime "made a decisive contribution to launching the Chetnik insurrection in 1990–1992 and to funding it thereafter," according to the political scientist Sabrina P. Ramet.[46] Chetnik ideology was influenced by the memorandum of theSerbian Academy of Sciences and Arts.[46] Serbs in north Dalmatia, Knin,Obrovac, andBenkovac held the first anti-Croatian government demonstrations.[47] On 28 June 1989, the 600th anniversary of theBattle of Kosovo, exiledCroatian Serb Chetnik commanderMomčilo Đujić bestowed the Serbian politicianVojislav Šešelj with the title ofvoivode, encouraging him to "expel all Croats, Albanians, and other foreign elements from holy Serbian soil", stating he would return to the Balkans only when Serbia was cleansed of "the lastJew,Albanian, andCroat".[48] Šešelj is a major proponent of a Greater Serbia with no ethnic minorities, but "ethnic unity and harmony among Orthodox Serbs, Catholic Serbs, Muslim Serbs andatheist Serbs".[49] In late 1991, during theBattle of Vukovar, Šešelj went toBorovo Selo to meet with a Serbian Orthodox Church bishop and publicly described Croats as a genocidal and perverted people.[50] In May and July 1992, Šešelj visited theVojvodinian village ofHrtkovci and publicly started the campaign of persecution of local ethnic Croats.[51][52]
During theYugoslav Wars, members of theSerbian Radical Party conducted a campaign of intimidation andpersecution against theCroats of Serbia throughhate speech.[53][54][55][56] These acts forced a part of the local Croat population to leave the area in 1992. Most of them were resettled inCroatia.[53][54][57][58] The affected locations includedHrtkovci,Nikinci,Novi Slankamen,Ruma,Šid, and other places bordering Croatia.[53] According to some estimates, around 10,000 Croats left Vojvodina under political pressure in three months of 1992,[59] and a total of 20,000 fled by the end of the year.[60] Between 20,000[59][60] and 25,000[61] to 30,000 according to Human Rights NGOs[62] to 50,000[63][64] Croats fled Vojvodina in the 1990s in total. Another 6,000 leftKosovo and 5,000Serbia Proper, includingBelgrade.[65] The SerbianHumanitarian Law Centre, based inBelgrade, has documented at least 17 instances of killings or disappearances of Croats fromVojvodina from 1991 to 1995.[66] In many instances, entire Croat families were abducted and murdered.
16,000 Croats were killed during theCroatian War of Independence, 43.4% of whom were civilians,[67] largely through massacres and bombings that occurred during the war.[68] The total number of expelled Croats and other non-Serbs during the Croatian War of Independence ranges from 170,000 (ICTY),[69] 250,000 (Human Rights Watch)[70] or 500,000 (UNHCR).[71] Croatian Serbs forces together withYugoslav People's Army andSerbian nationalist paramilitaries committed numerous war crimes against Croat civilians.[72] There were numerous well-documented war crimes against civilians andprisoners of war perpetrated by Serb and Yugoslav forces in Croatia, including theDalj killings,[73] theLovas massacre,[74][75] theŠiroka Kula massacre,[76] theBaćin massacre,[73] theSaborsko massacre,[77] theŠkabrnja massacre,[78] theVoćin massacre,[73][79] and theZagreb rocket attacks.
According to theCroatian Association of Prisoners in Serbian Concentration Camps, a total of 8,000 Croatian civilians andprisoners of war (a large number after the fall ofVukovar) went through Serb prison camps such asVelepromet camp,Sremska Mitrovica camp,Stajićevo camp,Begejci camp and many others where many were heavily abused and tortured. A total of 300 people never returned from them.[80] A total of 4,570 camp inmates startedlegal action against formerSerbia and Montenegro (now Serbia) for torture and abuse in the camps.[81] Croatia regained control over most of the territories occupied by the Croatian Serb rebels in 1995.
![The borders of Greater Serbia as advocated by Serbian Radical politician Vojislav Šešelj, defined by the Virovitica–Karlovac–Karlobag hypothetical boundary to the west.[82]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMap_of_Greater_Serbia_(in_Yugoslavia).svg)
War crimes and acts ofethnic cleansing were also committed by theBosnian Serb andMuslim (Bosniak) armies againstBosnian Croat civilians, during theBosnian War, from 1992 to 1995.[83][84][85][86][87]Concentration camps (such asOmarska,Manjača andTrnopolje) were established by theYugoslav People's Army (JNA) and the authorities ofRepublika Srpska (RS), where thousands of Bosnian Muslims and Croat civilians were detained, tortured, and killed.[88][89] 490,000 Bosnian Croats (or 67% of the population) became displaced during the conflict.[90] The acts have been found to have satisfied the requirements for "guilty acts" ofgenocide and that "some physical perpetrators held the intent to physically destroy the protected groups of Bosnian Muslims and Croats".[91] In the Serb-controlledRepublika Srpska entity, the population of Croats in 2011, has decreased from 151,000 to 15,000 since 1991, mostly as a result of war.[92] Some of the war crimes perpetrated by Serb forces included: theDoboj,Bosanski Šamac,Prijedor ethnic cleansings and theBrčko bridge massacre.
During theCroat-Bosniak conflict Bosniak media began referring to the Croats as "Ustaše". The Sarajevo government had a propaganda campaign to label their rivals as war criminals and themselves as the innocent victims. Bosniak press tried to deny Bosniak war crimes, and when that was no longer possible, it described them as a "retaliation by the victims". There are no precise statistics dealing with the casualties of the Croat-Bosniak conflict along ethnic lines. Former commander of theARBiH 3rd Corps,Enver Hadžihasanović, along with former commander of the 7th Muslim Brigade,Amir Kubura, were convicted for failing to take necessary and reasonable measures to prevent or punish several crimes committed by forces under their command incentral Bosnia. Some of the massacres perpetrated by Bosniak forces wereVitez,Trusina,Grabovica andUzdol massacre. Bosniak forces also operated a number of detention camps for Croat and Serb civilians and POWs, where a number of prisoners were abused and killed, such as in theSilos andMusala camps.ARBiH expelled slightly over 150,000 Croats, while theHVO expelled around 50,000 Bosniaks.[93]
Terrorism inBosnia and Herzegovina following theDayton Agreement mostly consisted of murders and bombings of specific people, primarily Croats. Themujahideen that stayed in the country created a climate of fear in central Bosnia, where they conducted regular shootings at and bombings of Croat houses and carried frequent attacks on Croat returnees.[94]
Croats were recognised inSerbia as aminority group just after 2002.[95] According to some estimates, the number of Croats who left Serbia under political pressure from the Milošević government may have been between 20,000 and 40,000.[96] According toTomislav Žigmanov, Croats live in fear as they have become the most hated minority group in Serbia.[97] The Government of Croatia contends that anti-Croat sentiment is still prevalent in Serbia.[98]
In contemporary Serbia, both politicians and media outlets have used the slur "Ustaše" to negatively refer to Croatians and Croatia as being a fascist nation. During a 2017 interview withDragan J. Vučićević, editor-in-chief ofSerbian Progressive Party's propaganda flagshipInformer, Vučićević held the belief that the "vast majority of Croatian nation are Ustaše" and thus ''fascists''.[99][100] The same notion is sometimes drawn through his tabloid's writings.[99]
A 2019 survey conducted by the Serbian newspaperBlic found that Croatians are the most hated foreign group in Serbia, with 45 percent of respondents surveyed having negative views of Croatian people.Tomislav Žigmanov, a prominent member of theCroatian community in Serbia, stated that “...resentment and stereotypes against the Croats are widespread in Serbia...” which is a consequence of “...strong and prevailing anti-Croat contents in statements of a relatively high number of Serbian senior officials.”[101]
In 2019, after a Serbian armed forces delegation was barred from entering Croatia without prior state notice to visitJasenovac concentration camp Memorial Site in their official uniforms,Aleksandar Vulin, the Serbian defense minister, commented on the barred visit by saying that modern Croatia is a "follower ofAnte Pavelić's fascist ideology."[102][103][104]
In October 2021, a local Croatian-language weekly newspaper in Serbia'sVojvodina region,Hrvatska riječ, reported that a grammar book for eighth-grade pupils stated that theSerbian,Slovenian,Macedonian andBulgarian languages areSouth Slavic languages while "Croats, Bosniaks and someMontenegrins call the Serbian language Croatian,Bosnian, Bosniak orMontenegrin". The textbook was approved by the Serbian Institute for the Improvement of Education, a state education institution. The wording of the Serbian textbook has been criticised by theInstitute of Croatian Language and Linguistics, by Žigmanov, president of theDemocratic Alliance of Croats in Vojvodina, and by Jasna Vojnić, president of theCroatian National Council in Serbia, an organisation which represents the interests of the Croat minority in the country.[105]
In June 2022,Aleksandar Vučić was prevented from entering Croatia to visit theJasenovac Memorial Site by Croatian authorities due to him not announcing his visit through official diplomatic channels, which is a common practice. As a response to that certain Serbian ministers labeledAndrej Plenković's government as "Ustasha government" with some tabloids calling Croatia a fascist state.[106][107][108]
After theEU banned Serbia from importing Russian oil through CroatianAdriatic Pipeline in October 2022, Serbian news stationB92 wrote that the sanctions came after: "insisting of Ustasha regime fromZagreb and its Ustasha Prime MinisterAndrej Plenković".[109] Vulin described the EU as "the club of countries which had their divisionsunder Stalingrad".[110]
Croats are the third-largest ethnic group and "constituent people" by the preamble ofConstitution of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Bosniaks make up about 70 percent ofFederation of Bosnia and Herzegovina's inhabitants. That gives them vast numerical superiority at the polls and de facto control over who can be elected to lead the Croats at thepresidential level. Croats have unleashed new calls for sweeping electoral reforms. Bosnia's current Croat PresidentŽeljko Komšić, who is effectively backed by Bosniak voters, has lambasted the idea, calling it "an electoral law based onapartheid".[111] In October 2023 in his response toIsrael’s Ambassador to Albania and Bosnia and Herzegovina, based inTirana, Galit Peleg, Komšić broadly implied that all Croats inMostar arefascists.[93][112] Komšić is not considered a legitimate Croat representative by either Croats or Croatia.[93]
In September 2024 Bosniak politician Džafer Alić, member ofSDA said on TV interview: "We (Bosniaks) are the owners of Bosnia and Herzegovina, but we have very unpleasant tenants (Croats andSerbs) behind whom we always have to clean up, sweep away."[113][114][115] Bosniak nationalists often generalize both of the other ethnic groups as “killers,” whose goal it is “exterminate” Bosniaks and divide the territorial spoils between themselves.[116] BishopFranjo Komarica ofBanja Luka claimed thatCatholics are being discriminated in all respects: politically, socially, and economically. Catholics often have problems when they have Croat names.[117]
Historical conflicts have existed between Croatians and Italians over the region ofDalmatia, which is now controlled by Croatia and has been claimed as historically Italian territory. Italian president Giorgio Napolitano provoked an angry reaction from his Croatian counterpart after criticizing the actions of Croatians in Dalmatia, which he described as "Slavic expansionist" with allegations of ethnic cleansing.[118] The reaction from the Croatian side resulted in a cancellation of state visit by the Italian president. The European Union intervened and attempted to defuse the row between the two countries.[118]
In February 2019, Italian politician, and then President of theEuropean Parliament,Antonio Tajani, held a speech at theNational Memorial Day of the Exiles and Foibe commemoration inBasovizza (Trieste) which aroused an outrage inSlovenia andCroatia, most notably the statement "Long live Trieste, long live Italian Istria, long live Italian Dalmatia".[119][120] After numerous high representatives of the two countries strongly condemned the speech for itsrevisionist andirredentist connotations, Tajani stated his words were intended as "a message of peace"[121] and were misinterpreted.[122][120] The Slovenian partySocial Democrats launched apetition demanding Tajani's immediate resignation as president of the EU Parliament, which was signed among others by several former presidents of Slovenia and Croatia.[123]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: publisher location (link)He defined the so-called Karlobag-Ogulin-Karlovac-Virovitica line as the western border of this new Serbian state which he referred to as "Greater Serbia" and which included Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia and considerable parts of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Na insistiranje ustaškog režima u Hrvatskoj na čelu sa premijerom te zemlje Andrejem Plenkovićem, taj paket obuhvatiće i Srbiju jer preko Janafa neće moći više da uvozi rusku naftu.
Na insistiranje ustaškog režima u Hrvatskoj na čelu sa premijerom te zemlje Andrejem Plenkovićem, taj paket obuhvatiće i Srbiju jer preko Janafa neće moći više da uvozi rusku naftu.
