Official on Incidents in Croatia: Grim When Hooligans Take Things into Their Own Hands

Masked men in front of the Serbian Cultural Center in Zagreb (BETAPHOTO/HINA/Lana SLIVAR DOMINIC)

Vojvodina Premier Tomislav Zigmanov said on Nov. 19 of incidents targeting the Serb community in Croatia that it had proven grim time and time again in history when "the streets and hooligans take matters into their own hands," and blamed the "far right."

"All conflicts, disagreements, all negativity and diverging views, must be addressed within institutions," Zigmanov, a former minister in the Serbian government and head of the Democratic League of Croats in Vojvodina, told the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation.

The last few months have seen several incidents targeting the Serb community, including a group of masked young men halting the opening of the Days of Serb Culture in Split while chanting Ustashi slogans, a protest in front of the premises of the Serb National Council in Zagreb, and derogatory chanting by Croatian football fans at a match between the Montenegrin and Croatian teams in Podgorica.

According to Zigmanov, the Croatian society and state must understand how great this challenge is, face it immediately and find an adequate solution, not only so the victims -- institutions, events and individuals within the Serb community -- can be protected, but so that the outlook of their integration into Croatian society can be opened. He said the incidents and narratives did not come from mainstream structures of government in Croatia, and that they were instead "processes coming from the far right."