ZAGREB, Croatia — A live performance by right-wing singer Marko Perkovic, infamous for his perceived sympathy for Croatia’s World Struggle II pro-Nazi puppet regime, has drawn tens of 1000’s of his followers to Zagreb on Saturday.
Some 450,000 are anticipated to be in attendance on the Hippodrome later within the night, the most important live performance in Croatia’s historical past, in keeping with the police, considered as a significant safety problem.
Perkovic, also referred to as Thompson, has been banned from performing in some European cities over frequent pro-Nazi shows at his gigs, however he stays massively standard in Croatia, continuously attending rallies and sports activities occasions.
Organizers stated any show of any hate-fueling insignia is strictly banned at Saturday’s live performance.
Some followers have been seen wrapped in Croatian flags whereas others wore black Thompson-inscribed T-shirts.
“See you at Hippodrome,” Perkovic wrote on Fb. “Deal with one another.”
In Zagreb, a metropolis of practically 700,000 folks, the occasion has been nearly blocked and site visitors suspended in numerous areas days earlier than the occasion. Authorities deployed 1000’s of law enforcement officials and arrange a particular management heart and a discipline hospital.
The state-owned HRT tv stated snipers have been guarding the venue and helicopters have been flying above as guests streamed in.
Some followers instructed The Related Press they anticipated good enjoyable and have been blissful to be at such an occasion gathering so many Croats in a single place.
“Thompson is a patriot. He doesn’t insult anybody, he loves all people,” stated Ivica from jap Croatia, who gave solely his first title.
However not everybody was happy.
Former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor wrote an offended submit on X, criticizing how “the state and town have been put in service of 1 man.”
“Thrill and pleasure as followers at downtown Zagreb already sing songs from the period of the legal state,” Kosor wrote on X. “No media are reporting about that.”
Croatia’s WWII Ustasha regime ran focus camps the place tens of 1000’s of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma and anti-fascist Croats have been brutally executed.
A few of Perkovic’s songs embrace the Ustasha salute, punishable by legislation in Croatia, and different references to the pro-Nazi regime. S ome Croatian nationalists view the leaders of the Ustasha regime because the nation’s founders regardless of the recorded atrocities.
Perkovic first turned standard throughout a bloody 1991-95 ethnic struggle that erupted after Croatia declared independence from former Yugoslavia, wherein he fought.
Nicknamed “Thompson” after an vintage machine gun he carried within the struggle, Perkovic has claimed that his songs solely have fun Croatia’s victory in that struggle and its independence.
Index information portal posted video footage Saturday of some followers performing the Ustasha salute in Zagreb earlier than the live performance.