Hard-right parties hold controversial Jasenovac roundtable in the Sabor

Two hard-right parties - DOMiNO and the Sovereigntists - held a roundtable in Parliament today on the World War Two Jasenovac concentration camp. 

Participants claimed Jasenovac was not a concentration camp and disputed the widely accepted number of victims. The event sparked controversy when it was announced, with SDP leader Siniša Hajdaš Dončić urging Speaker Gordan Jandroković to cancel it. Jandroković declined, saying there were no grounds to do so under parliamentary rules. In protest, SDP lawmakers distributed photographs of Jasenovac victims to participants.

"Historical revisionism is legitimate. History was written by someone. Science is asking questions, in chemistry, history, everywhere. Isn't that so?" said Igor Peternel, the president of the DOMiNO and Croatian Sovereigntists Club in the Sabor.

Political scientist Igor Vučić said that a reexamination of the facts would show that the number of victims was greatly exaggerated.

"The number of victims will surely be less than the 30 to 40 thousand cited in 1989 in a book by Franjo Tuđman - who later became Croatia's president,” Vučić said during the event.

On the same day, the SDP delegation laid a wreath at the central memorial in Jasenovac to honor the victims. The party said the gesture reaffirms its position that historical facts are not open to interpretation and that crimes cannot be portrayed as misunderstandings. Those trying to distort the history of Jasenovac today, the SDP said, are not debating history but waging a campaign against the truth.

"As a Croat, I can say that the identity that committed these crimes has nothing to do with the identity of the people standing here with me today. Victims must be commemorated and we must remember the evils of the past. They must not be forgotten because it is good for our nation,” said SDP leader Siniša Hajdaš Dončić.

The controversial roundtable sparked a debate on the floor of the Sabor.

"How is it possible that in some other EU countries denying the Holocaust lands you in prison while in Croatia you get a conference room in Parliament,” said SDP MP Kristina Ikić Baniček.

Independent Democratic Serb Party MP Milorad Pupovac was equally critical.

"Some of them claim that only 700 to 1,500 people died in Jasenovac. If that's not minimizing and denialism, I don't know what is,” said Pupovac.

This was followed by a tense exchange between Pupovac and hard-right independent MP Josip Jurčević, who earned a reprimand from the Speaker.

"I reject any links between the Croatian Sabor, its leadership, and its members, to this event. It is clear who organized this, thereby it is also clear who is responsible,” the Speaker added, emphasizing that parties can hold events in the Sabor but it does not mean they are sponsored or approved by the chamber as a whole.