A Serbian opposition leader apologizes to Belgrade’s Jewish community and denies embracing supporters of a Nazi collaborator in the murder of thousands of Serbian Jews during World War II.

In a bid to bring together both the political left and right, “I certainly used too strong a comparison by saying that I do not care if someone keeps on the wall a picture of (Josip) Broz (Tito) or (Dimitrije) Ljotic,” political activist Sergej Trifunovic says in an open letter.

“If that was too far I apologize to everyone,” he says in response to backlash from local the Jewish community in recent days.

Ljotic was notorious for aiding the Nazi-allied Serbian puppet government that brutally sought to make the country “free of Jews,” killing more than 80 percent of the 33,000-strong community that existed before the war. Tito, on the other hand, was the leader of the anti-fascist movement during the war who went on to head communist Yugoslavia until his death in 1980.

Yesterday, the Serbian Jewish community accused Trifunovic of “heinously equaling those who fought against fascism and those who were helping occupiers in making Serbia a ‘Jewish free’ state.”

— AFP