Names of squares and streets
A square in the central part of
Zagreb had been named the "Square of the victims of fascism" (
Trg žrtava fašizma) because during World War II, over sixteen thousand people had been deported via the square to concentration camps. In the early 1990s, this square was renamed to "Square of great Croats" (
Trg hrvatskih velikana). This decision was later reverted in December 2000 during
Milan Bandić's mayoralty of
Zagreb.[SUP]
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In several Croatian cities, streets were renamed after
Mile Budak, a prominent Ustaša ideologist, on the basis that he was otherwise a poet. The moves to hail Budak this way, were supported by 120 university professors, scholars, and other public figures.[SUP]
[20][/SUP] Conversely, the leftist newspaper
Feral Tribune regularly satirized the Mile Budak streets, and its journalists explicitly criticized this trend.
The renaming of streets and squares after Budak (and other Ustaša-related people) has mostly been reversed by recent governments. In 2003,
Ivo Sanader's government decided to finally deal with the issue which resulted in a decision to rename all the streets bearing Budak's name. In 2004, a plaque commemorating Budak's birth in the village of Sveti Rok was removed by the same authorities. Numerous local authorities however refused to follow up with the renames or delayed them.[SUP]
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Catholic clergy
Controversy was caused on June 2008 when Croatian military bishop
Juraj Jezerinac recitated a song named
Bijeli golubovi by
Marko Perković Thompson, the controversial singer mentioned above, during a sermon in a church in
Vukovar.[SUP]
[29][/SUP] The song contained also the NDH motto "
Za dom spremni".[SUP]
[30][/SUP]
Simon Wiesenthal Center director
Efraim Zuroff complained to the Croatian president
Stjepan Mesić about the funeral of
Dinko Šakić, one of the leaders of the army of the Independent State of Croatia, who died on July 2008. At that funeral, Croatian Dominican priest pater
Vjekoslav Lasić held a speech in which he said that "the court that indicted Dinko Šakić indicted Croatia and Croatians", and that "every Croat should be proud of Šakić's name".[SUP]
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Sports
Ultranationalist Croats have shouted the slogan "Kill the Serb" during some sporting events.[SUP]
[32][/SUP] According to some Croatian media, a group of youths chanted this during a concert by
Marko Perković Thompson.[SUP]
[33][/SUP][SUP]
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In January 2006, the Ustasha song "Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara" was played publicly during the interval of an international club volleyball match. Officials later attributed the incident to a single individual, and the police did not intervene.[SUP]
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