Members of the Croatian parliament on Wednesday condemned Monday's attack in St. Mark's Square, hate speech and other forms of violence, noting that one should focus on the cause of violence instead of dealing with the problem by setting up barriers.

Social Democratic Party (SDP) leader Pedja Grbin said that for quite some time now there had been cases of violence in the streets, squares, cafes and stadiums, which were frequently motivated by hate speech and glorification of violence.

“Every day someone is attacked because of their ethnic background or religion, sexual orientation or sex, and we as a society are not responding to it but are merely condemning those incidents now and then,” said Grbin, calling for concrete measures such as the introduction of civics in schools and action in preventing hate speech.

He noted that the police barriers and increased police presence in St. Mark’s Square, where a 22-year-old man on Monday shot at the government building and wounded a police officer working there as a security guard, only created the impression that something was being done.

Violence could have happened at any other location and we are protecting only one square. The government is evidently using this to shut off from the public and media, Grbin said.

Bridge MP Bozo Petrov agreed that the barriers outside the government offices would not solve the problem, noting that for 30 years crimes, corruption, fraud and hate speech had not been sanctioned.

Zeljko Sacic of the Croatian Sovereignists said that the relevant services had not done all they could have to prevent the attack.

He noted that anywhere else in the world the minister of the interior would have resigned or taken adequate measures after such an incident but none of that had happened.

Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) noted that many young people in Croatia went through different types of temptation, whether to stay or emigrate, whether to attack someone or not, steal instead of work.

“Some MPs say that one should be armed because ‘there are those who killed and raped walking around’. What kind of message is that? Others say that ‘state institutions should be brought down’. Isn’t it time to start thinking differently?” said Pupovac, calling on MPs to act responsibly and not incite hate with their statements.

Bojan Glavasevic of the Green-Left Bloc said the attack in St. Mark’s Square was an act of domestic terrorism and called for focusing on the causes of violence instead of setting up police barriers in the square.

“St. Mark’s Square should not be shut off because that way we are sending a message that is grist to the attacker’s mill, namely that we are an elite that is not working in citizens’ but its own interest,” said Glavasevic.

Earlier in the day, Parliament Speaker Gordan Jandrokovic, who returned to parliament after self-isolating due to coronavirus infection, strongly condemned the Monday incident and the ensuing hate speech and messages of intolerance on social networks, calling on MPs to work on a daily basis on preventing hate, radicalism and prejudices that can result in violence.

MPs wished the wounded police officer a speedy recovery.