Mozemo party coordinator Sandra Bencic said on Sunday, on the occasion of the 79th anniversary of the breakout of the last inmates of the Ustasha-run concentration camp at Jasenovac, that Jasenovac did not happen by chance, calling on citizens to say 'No' to policies of fear and hate in European elections.

Speaking to reporters before the commemorative event at Jasenovac, Bencic said that this year the significance of Jasenovac was even greater than before.

“Jasenovac was not a coincidence… It was part of a planned policy of the Ustasha regime and in Croatia it materialised in its worst form exactly here,” Bencic said.

Parties that base their policies on fear and hate towards those who are different have been on the rise in Europe and the rest of the world, so one should remember, ahead of the European elections, what such policies turn into, she said.

“Let us not forget that words, especially in the political arena, are not just words and can often materialise as crimes that we unfortunately witnessed in our history,” Bencic said.

Policies of fear and hate are not just single-use instruments to mobilise voters. “They can really become part of the system and policies, and then they result in what they resulted in here,” she said, calling on voters to reject such policies.

Benčić would not answer reporters’ questions about the formation of the new parliamentary majority.

She also noted that today her delegation did not want to be part of the delegation led by Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic as it did not consider it appropriate.