Zoran Milanovic compared the proclamation to the Nazi salute ‘Sieg heil’ and stated that he “doesn’t want to hear it on Croatian soil”.
Croatian President Zoran Milanovic has criticized the use of the Ukrainian nationalist proclamation ‘Glory to Ukraine!’ (‘Slava Ukraine’) on Croatian territory, comparing it to a greeting used during World War II by the Croatian fascist movement Ustacha.
Speaking to reporters in Zagreb on Wednesday, Milanovic said he had long been fighting against the use of the slogan ‘Za dom spremni’ (‘For the homeland, get ready!’ in Spanish) in his country. “There is no difference between ‘For the country, get ready!’ and ‘Glory to Ukraine!’This is the cry of the Western Ukraine’s most radical chauvinists who collaborated with the Nazis and killed hundreds of thousands of Poles and Jews. This is a fact,” he expressed, noting that it is the same as the ‘Sieg heil’ salute of Nazi Germany.
“So I don’t want to hear this on Croatian soil! The fact that some western leaders, especially in Canada, have become addicted to it [la proclama] because of their illiteracy or simply because of their nature, I will not do it,” he stressed.
- The greeting ‘Za dom spremni’ was prohibited by Croatian law. The Constitutional Court of Croatia also ruled on the issue, qualifying it as a crime against public order and incitement to hatred.
Source: RT
