Croatian Party of Rights

An Austrian Interior Ministry group of experts presented a report to officials on Wednesday suggesting a complete ban on the annual gathering in Bleiburg in southern Austria which commemorates tens of thousands of Croatian Nazi-allied Ustasa troops and civilians who were killed by the Yugoslav Partisans in 1945.

The Serbian National Council, which represents Croatia's Serb minority, said on Monday that activists from the far-right Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights, A-HSP have parked a caravan in the village of Srb decorated with symbols of the World War II fascist Ustasa movement ahead of the annual commemoration of an anti-fascist uprising in 1941.

'Defenders of the homeland'

The HOS, significantly, wasn't just any nationalist militia. It was marked by its unapologetic defence of the World War II Nazi-collaborationist Ustasa movement.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the top candidate of the centrist European People's Party, EPP, for the post of European Commission President, Manfred Weber, will participate in the central election conference of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union, HDZ, on Saturday in Zagreb.

Croatian interior minister Vlaho Orepic said on Tuesday that chief of police Vlado Dominic, the head of the Zagreb police, Goran Burusic, the head of police internal control, Stjepan Jurinec, and the chief of the criminal police, Danijel Zugelj, had resigned after the burglary on Sunday night.

The right-wing Authentic Croatian Party of Rights showed off around two dozen uniformed activists from its so-called Patriotic Guard in Ban Josip Jelacic Square in Zagreb on Sunday. On the other side of a police cordon, anti-fascists and Workers’ Front members protested against what they called a “fascist” display.

Current discussion in Croatia on re-introducing military conscription is "not serious" and shows a lack of proper analysis and preparation, a military analyst, Igor Tabak, told BIRN.

"The military doesn't serve itself and is financed from the state budget by the citizens - so starting such a debate without taking into account the basis for such a decision is frivolous," he said.

The Women's Network of Croatia told BIRN that a rumoured candidate to head the proposed new Ministry of the Family, Immigration and Demography could push "highly conservative" attitudes towards women and try to curb legal rights to abortion.

BELGRADE - Chairman of the Serbian Parliament's Committee on the Diaspora and Serbs in the Region Janko Veselinovic said Saturday that a recent statement by the newly elected Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic, in which she said that all Serbs in Croatia were Croats, was dangerous.