President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović rejected the “malicious interpretations” of her statement that after World War II, many Croats in Argentina found a space where they could freely express demands for the freedom of the Croatian people and homeland, her office stated on Wednesday.
“This statement is in no way contrary to the very clearly expressed views on the NDH, as well as on the contribution of antifascism to the creation of the modern Croatian state,” the media statement said, in which the president reacted to the opposition’s accusations.
The head of the SDP parliamentary club, Arsen Bauk, sharply condemned the Croatian president’s statements on Wednesday, ironically noting that many Germans also found a “space of freedom” in Argentina, listing Nazi war criminals Eichmann and Mengele, as well as Ustaša criminals Ante Pavelić, Dinko Šakić, and others. The president rejects such an interpretation.
>>> Pusić: The president speaks against the Constitution, we cannot be semi-fascists
“Only malicious individuals can interpret the president’s statement as glorifying a totalitarian regime and its leaders,” the president’s office stated.
“It is sad that even today, the suffering of many emigrants who were not allowed to express patriotism in their country, their desire for a free and independent Croatia, and who were imprisoned, persecuted, and even killed during the former Yugoslavia, is not recognized,” the statement reads.
Receiving the charter of honorary citizen of Buenos Aires in the city hall on Monday, the president said that “Croats in Argentina shared the fate of their people during the former Yugoslav communist regime, which was disturbed by any display of national identity, Croatian flags and coats of arms, or the expression of faith” and that “after World War II, many Croats in Argentina found freedom in which they could witness their patriotism and express justified demands for the freedom of the Croatian people and homeland.”
