ZAGREB, Croatia (AP) — A live performance by Marko Perkovic, the right-wing singer infamous for his perceived sympathy for Croatia ’s World Conflict II pro-Nazi puppet regime, gathered tens of 1000’s of followers to Zagreb on Saturday.
As he got here out to the stage, Thompson informed the group that “with this live performance we’ll present our unity.” He urged the remainder of Europe to “return to its custom and Christian roots.”
Some 450,000 are anticipated to be in attendance on the Hippodrome, the largest live performance in Croatia’s historical past, based on the police, considered as a serious 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 common in Croatia, steadily 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 had been seen wrapped in Croatian flags whereas others wore black Thompson-inscribed T-shirts.
“See you at Hippodrome,” Perkovic wrote on Fb. “Care for one another.”
In Zagreb, a metropolis of practically 700,000 folks, the occasion has been just about blocked and visitors suspended in varied areas days earlier than the occasion. Authorities deployed 1000’s of cops and arrange a particular management middle and a discipline hospital.
The state-owned HRT tv stated snipers had been guarding the venue and helicopters had been flying above as guests streamed in.
Some followers informed The Related Press they anticipated good enjoyable and had been glad 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 everyone,” stated Ivica from jap Croatia, who gave solely his first identify.
However not everybody was happy.
Former Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor on X criticized how “the state and the 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 felony 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 had been brutally executed.
A few of Perkovic’s songs embody 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 common throughout a bloody 1991-95 ethnic warfare that erupted after Croatia declared independence from former Yugoslavia, during which he fought.
Nicknamed “Thompson” after an vintage U.S. machine gun, Perkovic has claimed that his songs solely have a good time Croatia’s victory within the warfare and its independence.
Index information portal posted video footage Saturday of some followers performing the Ustasha salute in Zagreb earlier than the live performance.
