The Social Democratic Party (SDP) on Saturday asked the Senate of the University of Zagreb not to support the election of associate professor Vlatka Vukelic for the deanship of the Faculty of Croatian Studies "because of her revisionist attitudes towards the NDH and the Ustasha movement."

The Zagreb branch of the SDP stated that the agenda of the next session of the Senate of the University of Zagreb, scheduled for April 18, also includes the confirmation of the election of the dean of the Faculty of Croatian Studies, and associate professor PhD. Vlatka Vukelic.

“It is an alarming fact that the Senate of the oldest and most important Croatian university in modern Croatia, a member of the European Union, was brought into a situation where, in the year in which Croatia assumed the presidency of the International Holocaust Remembrance Association, it even considered the candidacy of Vlatka Vukelic, who, in her previous public and scientifically unfounded actions has repeatedly expressed revisionist views about the criminal nature of the Independent State of Croatia (NDH),” the Zagreb SDP said in a press release signed by acting president of the Zagreb SDP, Branko Kolaric.

The Zagreb SDP stated that Vlatka Vukelic publicly denies the existence of the Ustasha children’s camp in Sisak during the Second World War, denies the activities of the First Sisak Partisan Unit, which was founded on June 21, 1941, in the Brezovica forest as the first anti-fascist unit in Croatia and Europe, and they say, has on several occasions distorted historical facts regarding the Jewish victims in Croatia during World War II in her public statements, to which Jewish and anti-fascist associations and prominent intellectuals have so far reacted.

“It is important to note that Vlatka Vukelic’s statements have no basis in scientific facts. She regularly distorts recent Croatian history, although she is not an expert in that area. In 2022, Vlatka Vukelic congratulated the Statehood Day on social networks by taking a photo under the Ustasha flag, thereby denying the official flag of modern Croatia,” they added.

The Zagreb SDP reminded that the modern Croatian state is based on the achievements of anti-fascism, which is woven into the foundations of the Constitution, and said that the leadership and the Senate of the public university must take a clear position that persons with a revisionist attitude cannot hold any leadership position at the University of Zagreb.

The SDP Zagreb also appealed to the Ethical and Statutory Committee of the University of Zagreb to review her teaching activities as a professor.

“Vlatka Vukelic teaches the History of the Independent State of Croatia course at the Faculty of Croatian Studies, and we believe that the competent university committee should urgently review the course syllabus and the practical delivery of classes. In modern democratic Croatia, revisionism has no place at universities that educate young generations”, the SDP said.