A group led by far-right agitator Dražen Keleminec once again staged a “protest” near the home of the parents of Novosti columnist Boris Dežulović in the centre of Split. Alongside inflammatory rhetoric, Keleminec also provoked his own arrest.
Dražen Keleminec, the president of the Autochthonous Croatian Party of Rights (A-HSP) and a well-known far-right extremist, gathered a group of supporters for the second time in four months to protest near the home of Dežulović’s elderly parents in Split. During the gathering, he shouted at the police commander, deliberately provoked his own arrest, and threatened to organise further protests outside the home of the award-winning writer and Novosti columnist’s parents—next time without notifying the police, Novosti reported.
“We have the right to organise a protest with fewer than twenty participants without notifying the police. We’ll come, and you won’t even know about it,” Keleminec told the police commander whose officers had blocked access to the street, as they had done during a previous gathering at the same location on 28 February.
This time, however, fewer police officers were deployed, and Keleminec’s group was stopped approximately one hundred metres from the Dežulović family home.
Keleminec and around fifteen supporters gathered at 10 a.m. in front of St. Dominic’s Church at Split’s Green Market. Wearing black T-shirts bearing an emblem resembling that of the wartime HOS units—but instead of the Ustaša salute displaying the inscription “Croatian Patriotic Forces – Croatia for Croats”—they marched through the market carrying black flags and Croatian chequered flags while blasting music by nationalist singer Marko Perković Thompson through loudspeakers. The procession attracted the attention of Saturday shoppers, many of whom appeared visibly uneasy.
Police again prevented the group from approaching the house, stopping them about one hundred metres away. Nevertheless, Dežulović’s parents—his 88-year-old mother and 86-year-old father—could still hear Keleminec shouting. He accused the police commander of “protecting Croatia’s enemies” and demanded his name so that he could “file a private lawsuit” against him.
After shouting at the officer for several minutes and accusing him of violating the Croatian Constitution, Keleminec walked past him toward a police barricade guarded by riot police. There he continued repeating false accusations against Dežulović and announced that he would organise another gathering at the same location without notifying the police, despite the obvious impact such announcements could have on the journalist’s elderly parents.
Keleminec then deliberately approached the police barrier while inviting the media to film him, after which officers arrested him. Two of his associates continued delivering inflammatory speeches directed against Serbs and the media, mixed with conspiracy theories and historical falsehoods. They also announced plans to protest outside the European Parliament in Brussels, claiming they needed help because “communists are in power”, and declared they would remain until Keleminec was released. The gathering dispersed shortly afterwards.
Boris Dežulović also reacted on social media:
“Duke Keleminec and his volunteers from the Autochthonous Serbian Party of Rights once again responded today to the call of Vučić’s Informer to confront the prominent Ustaša who insults Serbs and the Serbian Orthodox Church in the publicly funded Zagreb weekly Novosti,” Dežulović wrote sarcastically.