While ICE raids are starting to resemble the Nazi round up of Jews and other “undesirables,” Europe’s fascist past is experiencing a rebirth.
A prominent figure with millions of adoring, ardent followers threw pro-Nazi salutes to the crowd, who roared in appreciation.
You might assume I’m referring to Elon Musk, who “Sig Heiled” Trump supporters after the former president defeated Biden in last year’s election (he did it, no matter how many times his sycophants insist otherwise).
However, I am referring to a man you’ve likely never heard of, Marko Perković, a Croatian singer who drew hundreds of thousands of rabid fans to his recent concert in the country’s capital, Zagreb, setting a new attendance record.
One of Perkovic’s most popular songs contains the lyrics “For the homeland — Ready!”, a rallying cry of Croatia’s former fascist regime, known as the Ustasha, which was aligned with the Nazis during World War II.
Despite Croatian laws that ban the salute, the Balkan country’s courts have made exceptions allowing its use in Perković’s lyrics under the guise of artistic expression.
Perković, who performs under the stage name Thompson, a reference to the automatic weapon of old, has long been a polarizing figure in Croatia and has previously been barred from performing in several European cities due to the use of fascist symbols and rhetoric at his concerts.
Footage aired by Croatian media showed many fans giving the salute in unison (see above), prompting criticism both domestically and abroad.
While reporting on the concert, one of Croatia’s leading news media outlets noted that the event was “overshadowed by the invocation of a regime responsible for mass executions.”
About those “mass executions,” there’s something you should know.
Not only did Croatia’s Utasha round up Serbs, Jews, Roma, and anyone who didn’t worship at their fascist feet, they killed them in ways so brutal that even the Nazis were horrified.
If I went into details here about what the Utasha did, you likely wouldn’t be able to finish the rest of this column. After you are done reading, look it up. Warning: It just might ruin the rest of your day.
Thousands of fans at the concert wore concert t-shirts and other clothing with Utasha insignia emblazoned on it while singing along to Perković’s performance.
Of course, Croatia is not the only country in Europe where a new generation is resurrecting the fascist horrors of the past.
Italy’s current ruling party, Brothers of Italy, has fascist roots, although Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, a favorite of Trump among European leaders, says the party has “moved beyond” those days.
Someone needs to tell that to party supporters who throw Nazi salutes at rallies while sporting shaved heads.
Then there’s Germany’s AfD party, which, despite calls by some in the country for its banishment, is now more popular than ever.
This is the same political party that Musk once told it shouldn’t be ashamed of its extreme right-wing anti-immigrant agenda.
There are loads of other fascist or fascist-adjacent political parties, leaders, and groups in Europe I could name.
In Poland, Hungary, Spain, The Netherlands, and numerous other countries, fascists maintain a foothold, and many cases are growing in size and appreciation among a people too young to remember the horrors of the last global conflict that left millions around the world dead, many of them losing their lives in concentration camps.
Meanwhile, in America, masked ICE officers are doing their best impression of jack-booted fascist thugs from the last century while rounding up, imprisoning, and deporting people without due process to a hell-on-earth concentration camp in El Salvador, and now South Sudan.
Fascism has a way of taking root whenever those who feel their standing is threatened by “others” whom they can conveniently blame for all their troubles.
Both in Europe and the United States those “others” happen” to be on the brown side and hail from what Trump calls “shithole” countries in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and elsewhere.
I don’t imagine there is any consolation in knowing that America isn’t the only country flirting with fascism these days.
But we should ask ourselves: why do fascism’s lies and hatred easily seduce so many people around the world?
