Prime Minister Andrej Pleknovic on Friday issued a message on the occasion of Anti-Fascist Struggle Day saying that Croatian anti-fascists had made their contribution to the victory over Nazism and Fascism in World War II, which laid the ground for Friday's democratic and united Europe.

On the occasion of June 22, we recall the day when in 1941 the first antifascist unit was formed in the Brezovica forest near Sisak in the then occupied Europe. Numerous Croatian antifascists, whom we remember today, made their contribution to the victory over Nazism and Fascism in World War II, which was the precondition to building today’s democratic and united Europe.

With the establishment of an independent, free and democratic Croatia, the victory in the Homeland War and full membership of the North Atlantic Alliance and European Union, we have become equal stakeholders in building a common European future and preserving the universal values of peace, freedom and human rights, the prime minister wrote in his message.