Violence and intolerance against Serbs in 2014
Nasilje i nesnošljivost prema Srbima u 2014.
Keywords: Violence against Serbs;
As opposed to earlier years when cases of violence, intolerance and hate speech directed towards Serbs were mostly registered in the areas of refugees return, it is noticeable that from 2012 on, such cases have spread throughout Croatia. What significantly contributed to this trend, which is increasingly assuming revisi¬onist right-wing features, was the socio-political context which became increasingly radicalized since the coming to power of the coalition led by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and Croatia’s accession to the European Union.A new awakening of nationalist euphoria, as well as the mobili¬sation of a part of the veterans’ population, began with the cu¬rrent government’s decision to initiate full implementation of the Law on the use of languages and letters of national minorities in the Republic of Croatia, which stipulates the equal use of mi¬nority language in communities where minorities make up more than 33 percent of population. Placement of the first bilingual plaques on state institutions in Vukovar in early 2013, caused re¬sistance of the veterans’ association Headquarter for Defence of Croatian Vukovar. The Vukovar veterans’ protest, which turned into a protest against the rights of Serbs, eventually brought on an increased level of hate speech and of ethnic intolerance in public space.
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