Istrian Democratic Party (IDS) president Boris Miletic on Saturday condemned "the sad and sorry provocation by a group of Italian neo-fascists, who recently hung the Kingdom of Italy flag on the Governor's Palace in Rijeka," saying "the world is and will be going forward, no matter how much someone tries to turn back time."

“Fascism is a reactionary and defeated ideology, and Istria, which unfortunately experienced the whole evil of fascism, is the last place in the world where the fascist idea could live again,” he said in a press release.

Miletic said he was saddened that in Europe, which did not know borders for decades, there were still those who advocated changing state borders. “I believe this provocation best shows the caricature and irrelevance of such movements, whether they come from the Italian or the Croatian side.”

As for the decision by the City of Trieste to unveil a monument to fascism originator Gabriele D’Annunzio on the centenary of his occupation of Rijeka, Miletic said it was absolutely incomprehensible. “Any recognition of and attempt to downplay reactionary ideologies or state territorial claims certainly does not contribute to good neighbourly relations and is in complete opposition to Europe’s values.”

Miletic said the IDS had zero tolerance towards any form of fascism and that it would not keep quiet when someone “undermines the foundations of a modern, civic and open society.”

He called on state authorities to condemn, clearly and in the strongest terms, statements by the HVIDRA association of disabled war veterans made a day before, which condemned recent statements by Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) leader Milorad Pupovac and called on the justice minister to say if those statements constituted a criminal offence and if by making them Pupovac had violated Croatian laws, noting that the SDSS was not desirable in Croatia and was not a relevant representative of the Serbs in the country.