Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said at the start of his cabinet's meeting in Zagreb on Thursday that he strongly condemned a recent assault on seasonal workers of the Serb background in the town of Supetar on the island of Brac, calling on relevant authorities to be agile and resolute when addressing such unacceptable and barbarian incidents.

Calling for the application of tight sanctions against such occurrences which he labelled as unacceptable, Plenkovic said that he believed that “we have to do more both by preventive and repressive measures against such incidents”.

He called for working on changing the climate in society which is obviously reaching a point of polarisation and intolerance, which is absolutely unacceptable, Plenkovic said.

Split police said on Tuesday evening they arrested two men aged 22 and 19 who were involved in the physical assault on seasonal workers in Supetar, while they are still looking for the other perpetrators. The hate crime took place around 4 a.m. on June 9. The two men are suspected of attacking five persons aged 21 to 26 on ethnic grounds together with other as yet unidentified persons. A Supetar fireman was injured while defending the victims, three young men from the Slavonia region and a girl from the city of Varazdin, who sustained light injuries. Before the arrest, the 22-year-old perpetrator was given a restraining order not to come within 150 m of the fireman, while the 19-year-old was reported for breaking the law on public order and the law on the prevention of discrimination.

Plenkovic underscored today that “there is no place for such incidents in this present-day modern Croatia that has fulfilled all national strategic tasks and that wants to be an inclusive society that is tolerant and honours its traditional values”.

Plenkovic also called on stakeholders in the society and political parties to contribute to efforts to create an attentive climate.

On Monday, the government issued a press release in which the premier said that his cabinet unequivocally opposes all forms of violence and intolerance toward members of ethnic minorities and condemns in the strongest terms the recent hooligan violence in Supetar on the island of Brac, wishing the victims of that hooliganism a speedy and full recovery.