Plane Hijacker’s Intervention Causes Turbulence in Croatian Presidential Race

The Croatian presidential election race, which ends on Sunday, has been hit by controversy after a far-right singer, a far-right politician and a woman who helped hijack an American passenger plane all backed the incumbent conservative, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, against her rival, Social Democratic former prime minister Zoran Milanovic.

Ultra-nationalist singer Marko Perkovic Thompson - whose concerts are notorious for chants of World War II Fascist slogans - on Thursday urged people on Facebook to "stop the communists in their march" - by which he meant supporting Grabar Kitarovic against her leftist rival.

A far-right politician, Anto Djapic, who ran in the presidential election in the first round but won only 0.21 per cent of the votes, on Thursday also said she was his choice in the Sunday runoff.

However, words of support from Julienne Busic, who was convicted in the US for taking part in hijacking a passenger flight in 1976, have caused the biggest controversy.

Julienne Bušić:✌Broj 2 - kao pobjeda! Victoria - ZA Kolindu! https://t.co/1AFYPbzbUk pic.twitter.com/8dbPbi4wCV

— HDZ (@HDZ_HR) January 1, 2020

On Wednesday, the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, posted a video on Twitter with Busic backing Grabar-Kitarovic.

The American wife of a Croatian emigrant, Zvonko Busic, she, her husband and two others hijacked the TWA plane as it left New York's LaGuardia Airport for Chicago in 1976 to draw attention to Croatia's struggle for independence from then Communist Yugoslavia. They took the plane to Montreal, Iceland and then Paris, where they were persuaded to surrender.

Their claim to have explosives on board the aircraft was a hoax, but they had stashed a real bomb in a locker at New...