United Against Fascism Marches: Difference between revisions

Zagreb protest
Anti-fascist protesters in Zagreb
Date	30 November 2025
Location	Zagreb, Rijeka, Pula, Zadar
Caused by	3 November violent disruption of Serbian Culture Day in Split 7 November attack on Serb cultural center in Zagreb 9 November attack on Serbian karate team in Rijeka Attack on Dalmatian school children visiting Zagreb book fair Interliber Usage of fascist Za dom spremni slogan in Croatian Parliament Historical revisionism related to Independant State of Croatia negationism of mass murders commited in Jasenovac concentration camp
Methods	Demonstrations
United Against Fascism Initiative masked counter protesters
no centralised leadership
Zagreb – around 10 000 people [1] Rijeka – around 1 000 protesters [2] Pula – around 1 000 protesters [3] Zadar between 300 and 500 protesters [4]
One child injured in Rijeka as a result of firecracker attacks. [5]

November 30 Croatian antifascist march were antifascist marches held in Croatian cities of: Zagreb, Zadar, Rijeka and Pula in the response to far right surge in the country, which was accompanied by the series of violent incidents.^[6]

According to Associated Press, Croatian tilt to right first starrted when Croatian main conservative party Croatian Democratic Union formed a coalition with far-right Homeland Movement party.^[7] The trend continued on when in July 2025 Croatian right wing singer Marko Perković Thompson held a massive concert in Zagreb which was attended by between 450 000 and 400 000 people.^[8] Before the concert began, Thompson fans around Zagreb sang songs celebrating ustashas, such as: “Evo zore, evo dana“^[9], and “Jasenovac i Gradiška Stara.”^[10] Thompson himself opened his Bojna Čavoglave song with ustaše war cry Za dom spremni.^[11] When the concert was over, Croatian minister of interior Davor Božinović published a video on TikTok in which he appeared in black shirt and described the concert as: “a rarely seen spectacle”.^[12] Defense minister Ivan Anušić confessed to the media that during the concert he responded to Thompson’s ustasha salute Za dom spremni.^[13] In the days which followed the concert, Croatian MPs continued to use the salute during Croatian parliament sessions.^[14]

In late August 2025, a group of Croatian war veterans prevented the cultural festival in Benkovac, while also insulting and attacking a journalist Melita Vrsaljko.^[15] According to Vrsaljko, police officers greeted the veterans amicably despite the attack and failed to protect her when one of them struck her. When the veterans blocked access to her car, police refused to allow her to reach it, forcing her to call her parents to retrieve the vehicle; they, too, were insulted by the veterans as they passed.^[16] Few days later, another group of veterans attempted to prevent the Fališ cultural festival in Šibenik.^[17]

In October 2025 Croatian parliament hosted a round table which downplayed the number of victims of World War 2 era Jasenovac concentration camp.^[14] On the round table, one of the main speakers was Igor Vukić who claimed on the round table that: “Jasenovac was a work camp, but not a torture house or a death camp”^[18]

On 3 November 2025 some 70 masked individuals bursted in building where Days of Serb culture in Split were held and illegally cancelled it.^[19] On 7 November 2025 masked hooligans attempted to prevent exhibition dedicated to legacy of Dejan Medaković in Serb Cultural Center in Zagreb.^[20] They also chantined songs celebrating Independent State of Croatia, insulted and spat on journalists and gave roman salutes^[21] before being chased away by the police.^[20] On 9 November a group of masked and armed hooligans attempted to attack Serb teenage karate team in Rijeka.^[22]

On 19 November 2025, “United Against Fascism” initiative has announced that they will organize a protest march under the same on Sunday, 30 November 2025. In their announcement, they claimed that march is a direct response to: the growing presence of hate speech, increasingly open displays of fascist symbolism, recent violent incidents, threats directed at cultural, minority and civic organisations, and what they described as a worrying “normalisation of intimidation.”^[23]

The march in Zagreb gathered some 10 000 protesters who marched from King Tomislav Square to Ban Jelačić Square^[24], where several speakers such as: actor Damir Markovina, writer Olja Savičević Ivančević, student Eva Marija Jurešić and cultural worker and activist Franka de Syo held their speeches.^[25]

In Zadar, hundreds of people joined the antifascist march on Obala kneza Branimira. The protest began peacefully and organized, however, shortly after the march began, a masked duo on a motorboat threw red paint at the protesters. As the column reached the city, several dozen counter-protesters, including members of the Homeland War Women’s Association, confronted them. A group of masked men shouted insults and approached the march physically, but police intervened, using restraint and irritant spray.^[26]

In Rijeka, the antifascist protesters were attacked by a group of about thirty masked men in black who threw firecrackers at participants before the march even started at Jadranski trg. After the march, in the Štriga café, masked individuals threw flares, injuring one person in the back.^[27]

In Pula on November 30, 2025, citizens gathered at Rojc Center and set off at noon for a march under the common banner “United Against Fascism”.^[28] The march proceeded peacefully, passing through Monte Zaro toward the city market, with demonstrators carrying banners such as “Freedom is stronger than fear” and “Fascists are parasites of society.”^[29] According to organizers, about 1,530 people participated.^[30]

Following the protest in Rijeka, the organizers announced their intention to file a complaint against the local police, alleging that authorities allowed an unpermitted gathering of counter-protesters and failed to adequately protect participants.^[31] The police later reported that they arrested 5 individuals for attacking the antifascists.^[32]

• Prime minister Andrej Plenković called the protest a “fabricated thesis,” arguing that it was in reality an event orchestrated by the radical left to promote ideological division and accused its organizers of trying to destabilize the government.^[33]
• Croatian Defense minister Ivan Anušić said that the protests organised by United Against Fascism Initiative were not truly antifascist, but rather “against Croatia” and “pro‑Yugoslav”.^[34]
• Ivica Kukavica, a member of the ruling coalition Homeland Movement, described the march as “the greatest provocation by so-called antifascists since the Homeland War.” He added that “the insignia seen at the protest were also worn by the aggressors during the Homeland War […] The black flag with a skull, which we also saw at the protest, was carried by Chetniks as they entered Vukovar in 1991“^[35] However, the Croatian daily Večernji list later clarified that the black flag with a skull seen at the protest was not a chetnik flag, but that of Japanese manga series One Piece popular among Generation Z.^[36]
• Mayor of Zagreb Tomislav Tomašević said that he supports the protest due to the rise of right-wing extremism, which is also noted in the SOA intelligence report, and emphasized that there has been no violence from left-wing extremists in Croatia. He explained that he did not attend the protest because, given the current social climate, his presence might have been misinterpreted as suggesting that the city government had organized the event.^[37]
• “The Croatian war veterans’ association HVIDR-a strongly condemned the marches ‘United Against Fascism’, calling the participants ‘fake antifashists’ and urged the authorities to clarify whether there were elements of criminal acts promoting symbols of the former totalitarian communist-fascist state. They argued that the messages and iconography seen at the protests evoke painful memories tied to symbols under which Croatia suffered during past regimes.”^[38]