The Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party said the antigovernment protest held outside the party's main office in Zagreb on Saturday under the slogan "We are firing you", was an act of incitement to hatred towards the party and degradation of politics.

“Voters have fired leaders of the Homeland Movement and Bridge,” the HDZ said on its Facebook wall, adding that “the rally brought together more officials of the two parties than Croatian citizens.”

“We have known that the mean and incompetent fledgling politicians from Bridge like to parasitise on lies and crazy conspiracy theories, but we now see that (Homeland Movement leader Ivan) Penava has decided his party should jump on the bandwagon as well,” the HDZ said.

Mario Kapulica, an advisor to the HDZ president, said he was not concerned about the protest but that he was concerned that it was not a serious political rally dealing with serious topics but one degrading politics.

The purpose of the protest was to make everything come down to the question of whether one is a member of the HDZ or not, and that sowing of hatred is very dangerous for the Croatian society, Kapulica said, adding that both the left and the right had united on the matter and that the only serious political organisation in Croatia was the HDZ.

Kapulica welcomed the fight against crime that was stressed at the rally, noting that crime did not have party affiliation.