Ustašluk and entertainment

The month is July, the year is 2025. More than half a million people on Zagreb the hippodrome is impatiently waiting for him to appear on the stage Marko Perkovic Thompson. With the first notes, everyone shouts, screams and applauds, and Thompson begins the performance of the most famous song.

The concert lasts several hours, the audience includes people of various ages, but most are under 30 years old. There are those gathered among those who remember the beginnings of this performer's career, but it seems that there are more people who are there for fun, to witness such a big concert and the hype created around everything.

This leap into the future may indeed be so, but let's return to the present moment and the past.

In recent weeks, the region has been buzzing about what Thompson and his team managed to do – to sell more than half a million tickets for a concert in July.

Marko Perković Thompson thrived on propagating Ustasha views in the 1990s, so in addition to the number of tickets sold, the thesis about the Thompson phenomenon has been circulating in recent days and questions are being asked as to whether such popularity brings his ultra-nationalist views and Ustašism back to the door of the turbulent situation in the region. "Vremen" interlocutors do not think so.

HYP, INVITATION TO FUN AND FORGET THE EVERYDAY

Marko Perkovic Thompson is known for using the Ustasha salute in his songs and clear allusions to the Ustasha that he glorifies in his songs, or at least it was like that on some earlier albums.

Historian Hrvoje Klasić believes that his current popularity and the number of tickets sold should be viewed from several angles.

"When we see the age structure of those who bought tickets, well over half of the people are under 30 years old. It is about the Zed generation, which looks at the past, and wars, and ideology, and divisions in a significantly different way. If I were to compare, with us elders it is very exclusive - you are either for the Chetniks or you are for the Partisans, or you are for the Partisans or you are for the Ustasha, you cannot be both. With them (the Zed generation), it seems to me that this is not the case at all." so exclusively, but not that they think it's good, but in principle they don't particularly care. They don't see that much of a problem," says Klasić.

As he adds, when he sees among the students in Serbia who are fighting for democracy, tolerance, freedom and peace, they sing King Peter's guard marched and that they dance along with it or when they see young men wearing Chetnik symbols, "someone in Croatia might think that they are thinking of killing and hating Croats, and I am almost certain that they do not. It is the same here. The vast majority of young people who go to Thompson's concert and who will sing all those songs, do not hate Serbs, but quite the opposite. What one of my friends would say: if you look in the cars of those young people, apart from Serbian discs, the only Croatian disc they have is Thompson's. They love Serbian music, movies, series, they have no problems with that", says Klasić. As he adds, there will certainly be people in the audience who have extreme right-wing views, who may support the Ustasha and come because of Thompson and his views on it, but that they will certainly not make up the majority.

Goran Vojković, a columnist for the Croatian portal Indeks, is of the same opinion.

"There will be those who will come because of Thompson in the 1990s, but it's not half a million people. There will be those who want a few hours of some kind of story about togetherness that no country has today and in a world where friendships and relatives are broken based on posts on social networks and attitudes about topics outside the family circle. Then comes Thompson with some kind of story about togetherness that never existed, but obviously sells well."

In the audience, he adds, there will be those who like that type of music.

"Some will come because others go to drink some beer, have fun and socialize. Of course, some come to show a political position, but that should not be seen as exclusivity," says Vojković.

THE FALL OF THE RIGHT-WING IN CROATIA, LEFTIST ZAGREB AND THOMPSON

The interlocutors of "Vremen" point to the latest polls that show a decline in the popularity of right-wing parties in Croatia, while at the same time Thompson, known for his Ustašluk and ultra-right views, is selling half a million tickets in Zagreb, where the left-wing party is in power.

"The Social Democratic Party of Croatia (SDP) and Mozemo have more support than the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the right. In Croatia, in the last 10 years, in five of the ten largest cities, the right and the center have been in power. All this is quite confusing," says Klasić.

As he says, the fact that half a million people in Croatia bought tickets for Thompson's concert is in no way causal.
the latter is related to the political situation in the country neither today nor in the last 10-15 years. Vojković also points to this fact: "Thompson is holding a concert in the same city where the local elections are held at the end of May, and the polls show that Tomislav Tomašević may win in Zagreb even in the first round - that is, Mozemo, the left-green party. The overall popularity of the parties is currently such that the left is stronger than the right, not in parliament, but in politics, yes. So many tickets sold cannot be connected with the strengthening of the right," he points out.

Thompson is also popular among politicians, and the former president of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar Kitarović, said during her mandate that she likes listening to his music. "I love listening to Thompson, and I used to listen to him a lot in the car with my kids when they were little," she said, adding that the song Are you beautiful? always reminded her of her homeland while she was working outside of Croatia.

MOVING AWAY FROM THE PAST?

In the songs and statements of the 1990s, Marko Perković Thompson did not hide his sentiment towards the Ustaste in various ways, according to the interlocutors of "Vremen". However, as they add, he has not appeared in public in recent years, and the lyrics of the songs are quite different from those at the beginning of his career.

"After he was banned from performing, so he could not develop his career in that direction, he calmed down quite a bit. If you look at his statements from the previous 10-15 years, he will not praise Anta Pavelić or the Ustasha anywhere, on the contrary, he will say that he does not want any Ustasha flags at concerts. I personally do not think that he has changed his views on this, but considering the influence he has, it is good that he at least kept silent publicly", says Hrvoje Klasić. "As a historian, I would like him to clearly condemn the Ustaše movement, but I know why he won't - because he doesn't condemn the Ustaše movement, he personally doesn't think they were what I think they were, but when he doesn't speak publicly about it, that's a big move," concludes Klasić.

Thompson gained great popularity in 1991 with a song Cavoglave Battalion, which begins with the lines "Ready for home".

"That song was a reaction to the fact that his village was attacked and later he found himself very good in singing, and in the accompanying financial sense, in a combination between patriotism and rock. Today he is an extremely successful businessman, who by the way also has some songs that most of Croatia knows. He has his past, the statements he made", points out Goran Vojković.

But, as he adds, as the years have passed, Thompson has clearly matured.

"If you look at his lyrics from the last albums, they are very moderate, very carefully worded, with a kind of criticism that is again quite general so that it can be applied to a lot of things. Behind all that is a very smart production. If someone had such a political campaign, it would do very well. It's basically excellent marketing by his team," says Vojković.

He does not expect that Thompson will promote attitudes from the 1990s at the concert.

"Nail heads he's always singing, that's for sure. If you look at his albums, his second album was a love affair and it didn't do well. After that, he returned to the patriotic theme because he realized that it works best. Later, he returned even more to the past", he adds.

As he explains, what Thompson now offers is a story about a fairly distant, somewhat mythologized past where everything was simple, like in the old movies, you had heroes, good guys and bad guys, no thievery, no war profiteers, no bad stuff.

"It's basically some kind of story about some kind of better past, some kind of story about religious selling of myths from the past that is obviously going well. He has escaped from the daily political situation. Lately he has not made any statements, there have been no appearances. We do not know his current political and social views. This has strengthened his appearance. He appears with a sword and talks about some kind of better past, which never existed in that form. It is a much more complex game than most reduce it to the Second World War and some of his previous ones statements, which were absolutely inappropriate", says Vojković.

And Klasić believes that for business reasons, Thompson realized that it is better for him to leave such attitudes behind and to talk about patriotism, Christianity, faith, love, nation, but in a different way.

The interlocutors of "Vremen" also indicate that a lot of Thompson's audience will fill the halls when singers from Serbia perform.

Serbian folk singer Aleksandra Prijović stirred up the public last year when she held six sold-out concerts in the Zagreb Arena. Among the audience at Marko Perković Thompson's concert, there will certainly be those who filled the Arena at that time, the interlocutors of "Vremen" agree.

CONTROVERSIAL ALSO IN CROATIA

During his career, Marko Perković Thompson's concerts were banned precisely because of his Ustasha views, and in February of this year, dust arose around his performance at the handball players' reception after the European Championship.

The president of the Anti-Fascist League of Croatia, Zoran Pusić, previously sent a request to Prime Minister Andrej Plenković that the government does not invite Thompson to sing at the reception because, as he stated, Thompson is a symbol of Ustaštva in today's Croatia, especially among young people. "Thompson is first and foremost a political message and, what's worse, a value message to young people; only then a singer. Yes, there are his songs that can be passed off as patriotic and in which the Ustaše is not glorified. But there are also those in which hatred and intolerance and the Ustaše are glorified, and in that sense, Thompson is in today's Croatia, especially among young people, a symbol of the Ustaše at least as much as Za dom spremni," the letter stated, among other things.

Plenković, responding to the allegations, said that the Croatian Handball Association and the national team members wanted Thompson, whose song If you don't know what happened became a kind of anthem of this generation of handball players, "and the players and fans sang it during all the matches in the Zagreb Arena".

Hrvoje Klasić does not expect Ustasha attitudes and symbols to be emphasized at the concert in Zagreb. As he adds, at the reception of the Croatian handball players, not a single "U" could be seen in the audience. "Any phenomenon that alludes to or that directly promotes the illegal, which in this case is Ustaštvo, should be punished immediately," Klasić points out.

SEARCH FOR ENTERTAINMENT

The number of tickets sold is more related to some kind of overall uncertainty of today's moment, say the interlocutors of "Vremen".

"People then look for some kind of relaxation, but in some way also the importance of togetherness and the story that is somehow mythical, which Thompson offers", says the Index columnist.

The success of the concert, which will be held in July at the Zagreb Hippodrome, is also linked to the weak musical offer in Croatia.

"We don't have any good young performers. When young people are told what it would be good to listen to, they talk about bands that even Thompson is relatively young to. They talk about the "new wave", which was created 43 years ago. They listen to Serbian performers and Thompson. He has no quality competition. I would also mention the fact that 99 percent of young people will certainly go to Thompson's concert without any problems, and tomorrow in some clubs they will only sing Cecina and Karleušina songs", says Vojković.

Klasić points to recent statistical data he came across, according to which Svetlana Ražnatović Ceca is heard more in clubs in Zagreb than in any city in Serbia except Belgrade.

WHO IS MARKO PERKOVIĆ THOMPSON??

Marko Perković Thompson was born in 1969 in Čavoglave in Dalmatia. His parents, Marija and Ante, were guest workers, and when Croatia declared its independence in 1991, Perković was part of the National Guard Corps and was assigned the American automatic rifle "Thompson", which gave him his nickname.

Already in 1991 he sang the song Cavoglave Battalion with which he gained popularity, and which unofficially also applies to the anthem of the Croatian Army. During the nineties, he continued to record songs with chauvinist and Ustasha lyrics, with the justification that it "boosts the morale of the army", and he also claims that in 1995 he was one of the first to enter Knin and Drnish during the "Storm" operation. Some of his songs are i Please, little one., Anica - Queen of Knin, Stop., wind, Are you beautiful?, and the song was especially criticized Jasenovac and Gradiška Stara, which he often sings at concerts.

Although he repeatedly tried to distance himself from the epithet of a singer who encourages and celebrates neo-Nazism and fascism, Thompson was repeatedly banned from holding concerts in Europe. Such decisions were usually temporary, and despite them he held performances in the USA, Canada, the Netherlands, Bosnia and Herzegovina...

His concerts are among the most attended in Croatia. In 2002, he gathered 40.000 people at the Poljud stadium in Split, then in 2007 he gathered 60.000 people at the Maksimir stadium in Zagreb, and then in 2015 even 80.000 in Knin to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the "Storm" action, when more than 200.000 Serbs were expelled and several thousand died. At that concert, the audience chanted "Kill the Serb" in unison.

His concerts often turn into the spread of Ustasha propaganda, which can be seen in the audience where many come with black caps and T-shirts, which are symbols of the NDH.

In 2009, Switzerland banned his concert in Lucerne on the grounds that it propagates fascism, thus banning him for all Swiss cities. However, this ban expired and he continued to sing around Switzerland.