Introduction & Updates in National Landscape
“Udruga ujedinjenja” (Unification Association), together with “Catholic men kneeling with rosaries” in the main squares
The kneeling campaign of the extreme right continued in the main squares in Croatia. This kneeling, taken from Spain and Poland, also has special Croatian additions in the form of Croatian fascism.
On the main square of Zagreb, there was also a man who was wearing a scarf of the extreme right party HSP over his face and was wrapped in a modified flag of quisling Croatia, on which the Ustasha symbols were visible, but inside the Ustasha symbol in black letters was written “Udruga ujedinjenja” (Unification Association).
On the Facebook page “Unification Association,” it is stated that the goal of the association is “Croatian unity with God,” and on the cover image is the Ustasha coat of arms and the inscription of the Ustasha terrorists “For home and Christ against the communists.”
On their Facebook page, you can also see footage from the association’s premises, whose walls are decorated with portraits of Ustasha criminals Jura Francetić and Ante Pavelić, as well as various Ustasha memorabilia.
They are led by Darko Majstorović, who claims in posts on Facebook that he is a war invalid. The association was created during the wave of anti-vaxxer protests. Members of the organization, which is led by members of the HOS pro-Ustasha units from the war, were at the massive anti-vaxxer protest on Ban Jelačić Square. They also stood in the front rows at the protests held this September when the police detained a minor who had Molotov cocktails. When praying, the rosaries in the center of Zagreb are always in the second or third row. They are distinguished from the others by the images of Our Lady that they hold. And by the Ustasha symbols that can be seen on the kneeling Majstorović.
But he is not an exception. At the press conference announcing the establishment of the association, the leadership said that their task was to “defend Croatia from non-Croats who work against Croatia”. Majstorović said that after the war, “Udbas, Yugoslavs and Serbs” came to power and that as an association, “it is not in their interest to defend Yugoslavia and the Serbs.”
In the photo above, we see Majstorović saluting with the Nazi salute in a T-shirt with the inscription “Young Ustasha.”
Among other things, Majstorović participated in collecting signatures for the broadcast of Jakov Sedlar’s fascist film about the Jasenovac camp.
Transnational Activities & Group Interactions
The organizers of the coup in Germany bought weapons in Croatia.
The far-right group gathered around the ‘Reichsburger’ movement was linked to Croatia through an investigation into arms smuggling. One of its members, Aleksandr Reichl, lived in Croatia, where he settled after marrying a Croatian woman. The action of acquiring weapons, among other things for Reichsbürger, was prevented by the Croatian police, and in a joint international action with the German police, dozens of people were arrested, including Croatian citizens, who were convicted in both Croatian and German courts. Moreover, it was established that part of the weapons, which this group acquired, were used in Germany for the liquidation of political opponents of the right-wing.
Reichl, a former German customs official, was first a member of the radical right-wing National Democratic Party of Germany (NPD), and in 2016 he joined the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AFD) party but also connected with the Reichsbürgers from Upper Bavaria. At the beginning of 2018, the Croatian police obtained information that Reichl was buying large quantities of military weapons left over from the war in Croatia and that, with the help of a few helpers, he was transporting them to Germany, where these weapons were distributed to members of right-wing groups, including Reichsbürgers.
In cooperation with the German police, a secret investigation was launched, and telephone conversations with the suspects were recorded, from which it appears that they arranged the purchase of automatic rifles, snipers, pistols, short machine guns, hand grenades, and shotguns. A total of 16 people were arrested in Croatia, and on the basis of the indictment, they were accused of procuring weapons for Reichl. Most of the defendants were sentenced based on plea bargains to conditional and unconditional prison sentences.
On the basis of a German European arrest warrant, Reichl was arrested in the area of Zadar in the summer of 2020 and extradited to Germany. After a one-year trial, Reichl, as well as Croatian citizen Martin M. and Reichsbürger Christian Neureuther, were found guilty by default at the court in Munich in June of this year. Reichl was sentenced to four years and three months in prison.
Citations:
Index.hr, Gordan Duhaček: Tko stoji iza klečavaca na Trgu bana Jelačića?