Croatia among the controversies: Brozovic and the other players celebrate with the salute with the text and the songs of the Ustascia – Calcio

Laughter, hugs, champagne. And greetings Nazis. Welcomed as heroes, a Zagrebthe players of the Croatia – third in the World Cup in Qatar – celebrated by parading on an open bus from the airport to piazza bano Jelacic, the heart of the city, where they danced and sang on a stage in front of 50,000 fans. Many flashes, many videos to capture the second consecutive world podium for a national expression of a country with less than four million inhabitants.

Croatian players sing their country’s most famous war song

The extra video, however, was shot in a secluded setting, during a party among the players: the Croatian flag in the background, loud music, shouting Za dom squeeze (Ready for the homeland) and raise their right arm to the sky, outstretched. It is the greeting used during the Second World War by the ultra-nationalist movement of the Ustacia Croatians, allied with the Italian fascists and the German Nazis: a gesture comparable to Sieg Heil, the formula used during mass rallies by Hitler’s regime. That phrase is the beginning of the song “Bojna Cavoglave” (Cavoglave Battalion), the most famous Croatian war song, written in 1991, in the midst of the Balkan war, by Marko Perkovicin art Thompson (name of the machine gun he wore during the war), born precisely in the village of Cavoglave.

Brozovic and Lovren salute with outstretched arms

In short, everything is all too clear, just as it is clear who made the outstretched arm gesture: Dejan LovrenZenit St. Petersburg defender with an important past in Liverpool, and Marcelo BrozovicInter midfielder.

The precedent of the Croatians after the victory over Brazil

Croatians are repeat offenders: after defeating the Brazil in the quarterfinals in Qatar, players and staff celebrated by singing another Perkovic song at the table, “Herceg-Bosna“, dedicated to the Croatian regime created in Bosnia during the war in the Balkans, between 1991 and 1994, and recognized as a criminal project by the International Criminal Tribunal in The Hague. Even then, those verses were captured on video that sparked much controversy. Not big enough, however, to prevent the episode from happening again.