BiH: Prosecutors launch investigation into Nazi salutes at concert
The announcement was made Thursday by the Bosnian prosecutor’s office, which confirmed it had received multiple complaints along with video recordings from the events. The case has now been assigned to a prosecutor, who will determine whether criminal charges will be filed.
Perković, 59, is a popular yet highly controversial figure in Croatia. He has previously been banned from performing in several European countries. Critics have long accused him of tolerating or encouraging extremist symbolism at his concerts, where some audience members have been seen expressing pro-Nazi sentiments.
The singer concluded his recent tour, titled “Pilgrim,” with two performances last Friday and Saturday in Široki Brijeg, a town in southern Bosnia and Herzegovina predominantly inhabited by ethnic Croats.
According to local media reports and videos circulated on social media — which have not yet been independently verified — large sections of the crowd, many of them young people, raised their arms in a Nazi salute and shouted “Za dom – spremni!” (“For the homeland – ready!”) as the singer addressed the audience between songs.
The slogan was used by the Ustaše, the Nazi-aligned regime that ruled the so-called Independent State of Croatia during World War II. The Ustaše were responsible for the persecution and mass killings of hundreds of thousands of Serbs, Jews, Roma, and anti-fascist Croats.
Perković has previously faced criticism over one of his songs that opens with the same slogan. He maintains that the reference relates to its later use by the HOS paramilitary group during Croatia’s 1991–1995 war of independence against Serb forces, rather than to the World War II regime.
The incident has sparked strong reactions within Bosnia and Herzegovina, particularly among Bosnian Serb politicians, some of whom have called for Thompson to be banned from entering the country.
Israel’s ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, Galit Peleg, condemned what she described as “shocking scenes of young people in Široki Brijeg performing Nazi salutes,” stressing that “such displays of hatred must be eradicated.” She urged authorities to handle the case with “severity” and ensure accountability.
In response, the singer’s team posted on Facebook that “the only truth” about the concerts in Široki Brijeg was that “life, unity, and emotion were celebrated.”
“Thompson has never glorified, nor will he ever glorify, Nazism or fascism,” the statement said, adding that any other interpretation constitutes a deliberate distortion of the facts.
The European Union delegation in Bosnia called on judicial authorities to act, emphasizing that “the glorification and normalization of fascist ideology have no place in a democratic society.”
Missions of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the United Nations in Sarajevo also expressed concern, warning of the “danger of normalizing extremism.”
