Serbian Radical Party (SRS) leader Vojislav Seselj trampled a Croatian flag and swore at a Croatian Parliament delegation which was on an official visit to the Serbian Parliament, his party said on Wednesday.

The press release said that Seselj toppled the pole that the flag was hoisted on at the entrance to the Serbian parliament building, then tried to rip it up and trampled on, together with another his party MP.

“Five members of the parliament’s security detail were unable to take the flag and pole away (from Seselj),” it said.  

Seselj then walked into the lobby, telling the Croatian Parliament delegation that he had “trampled on the Ustasha flag” and verbally abused them. Ustashe were a World War II-era Croatian fascist military organisation which persecuted ethnic Serbs.  

None of the reporters and media crews present in parliament reported that they witnessed the incident. Seselj, an ultra-nationalist politician, was recently convicted of war crimes by a UN tribunal.

His party MPs on Tuesday verbally assaulted a Democratic Party MP who called for his expulsion from parliament following the conviction.