The head of the Association of Antifascist Fighters and Antifascists of Croatia (SABA), Franjo Habulin, has strongly criticised what he describes as a policy of erasing the memory of the WWII antifascist struggle through ongoing monument destruction, with 3,000 memorials having been destroyed to date.

In a statement issued on Tuesday, Habulin says the “virus of defaming antifascism and flirting with fascism” started at the time when Croatia gained independence and had since become a lasting component of the national political and public scene, with around 3,000 monuments commemorating World War II partisan fighters and victims of fascism having been destroyed.

Habulin believes that this laid the groundwork for “the rehabilitation of Ustasha ideology as Croatian patriotism”.

Even though the government has announced that it will fight right-wing radicalism, the policy of erasing the memory of the antifascist struggle continues, Habulin says, noting that there are plans to remove or convert memorials honouring WWII antifascist fighters and victims of fascism in the municipalities of Perusic, Hum na Sutli and Martijanec.

A free and independent Croatia, which all its citizens will feel as their homeland, can only be built on the lasting values of antifascism, says Habulin.