Croatia: neo-Nazi parade in Zagreb, praising Trump Harsh condemnation from the US embassy and local government

(ANSA) - ZAGREB - A parade of about fifty Croatian neo-Nazis walked yesterday down the streets of Zagreb, as in previous years, but this time the American stars-and-stripes waved next to the symbols of the Croatian pro-Nazi Ustasha movement. The leader of the neo-Nazi party, Drazen Keleminec, explained that the American flag wanted to express support for the new president Donald Trump. At the end of the rally, Keleminec was taken to the police station for shouting several times the motto ''For the homeland - ready!'', which was used in the Second World War by the Croatian Ustasha regime, an ally of Hitler and Mussolini. The Ustasha were found guilty of thousands of atrocious crimes, especially at the Jasenovac death camp, where between 1941 and 1945 about 100 thousand people were killed or died, the majority of Serb and Jewish ethnicity. This morning, the US Embassy in Zagreb has harshly condemned the neo-Nazi rally, firmly rejecting ''any attempt to connect this hated ideology with the United States of America''. The government in Zagreb, criticized in recent months for its ambiguous positions towards far-right nationalism, has ''condemned all forms of extremism'' arguing that the gathering was intended to ''spread fear and intolerance and to act against government targets''.(ANSA).





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