A total of 393 cases of violence and other forms of incitement to discrimination against Serbs were recorded in Croatia in 2017, compared to 331 such cases reported in 2016, the Serb National Council (SNV) said on Monday.

“We are reporting, for the fourth consecutive year, that hate speech, calls for violence, various acts of violence, intolerance and historical revisionism, are becoming more and more frequent and continue to be tolerated in the public sphere and institutional communication,” the SNV president, Milorad Pupovac, said at a press conference in Zagreb.

He added that the ultra-conservative circles, which are renewing their campaign, and the authorities’ failure to enforce the law, were the reasons behind the trend.

Eleven physical attacks on members of the Serb community in Croatia or nationals of Serbia, 17 cases of devastation of anti-fascist monuments, 30 cases of damage done to Serb-owned property, mostly Serb Orthodox churches, and at least 107 insults and threats addressed to Serbs, mostly SNV members and journalists with the Serb minority weekly Novosti, were recorded last year, said Tamara Opacic, the author of the SNV bulletin which included data on hate speech, historical revisionism and violence against Serbs in 2017.

In addition, graffiti glorifying the fascist and Ustasha ideology and inciting to the murder of Serbs were recorded in 30 towns, Opacic said, adding she was concerned about the racist and xenophobic language used by many media outlets, as well as problematic statements by politicians.

Pupovac, leader of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS), which is part of the ruling coalition, said his party would support the government as long as there was the minimum capacity for democratic transformation of society and the preservation of democratic values.

“The easiest way would be to withdraw from the ruling coalition, and then what?” Pupovac said.

“Right now, the ruling coalition led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic provides the minimum prerequisites for continuing the fight against corruption and undemocratic trends, despite the fact that undemocratic trends are gaining strength,” he said.

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