The Croatian parliament on Monday opened discussion on a proposal to adopt a declaration recognising the Holodomor as an act of genocide committed against the people of Ukraine by the Soviet authorities in 1932-33.

The initiative was launched by the ruling coalition on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of the Holodomor, or death by starvation. Between four and six million Ukrainians are estimated to have died of starvation inflicted by the Stalin regime.

Although all parliamentary groups announced that they would vote in favour of the declaration, opposition MPs were critical of the fact that the matter was being discussed only in 2023, a year and a half after Russia launched the military invasion of Ukraine.

“Two years ago, before the start of the Russian aggression, Croatian Sovereignists proposed a similar declaration which was also signed by some members of the ruling majority. However, obviously under someone’s pressure, three MPs withdrew their signatures from the declaration, which is almost identical to the present one. Why did we wait for two years?” MP Marijan Pavlicek asked.

Zdravka Busic of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) responded by saying that she did not change her views, but that she was not satisfied with the wording of the declaration drawn up by Sovereignists.

Davorko Vidovic (Social Democrats) also thinks that the Holodomor should have been condemned sooner given that it was one of the gravest atrocities of the 20th century: “I regret that we do not condemn crimes by totalitarian regimes in general, as if we would not adopt it had there been no Russian aggression, and we should have adopted it 15 years ago.”

Hrvoje Zekanovic (Christian Democratic Party) criticised some of the opposition parties for hypocrisy, because today they speak of the Holodomor “with tears in their eyes” and late last year they “remained cool” because they did not help Ukraine when Parliament was deciding on the training of Ukrainian soldiers in Croatia. “There’s no soap that can wash away this political stain,” he stressed.