Thompson opened the song "Battle of Čavoglave" with the Ustasha salute "Ready for the Homeland".

At a concert he held in Zagreb last night, Croatian musician Marko Perković Tompson opened the song "Bojna Čavoglave" with the Ustasha salute "For Homeland", to which the audience responded with a thunderous "ready", which is how the song begins.

This is a salute used by the Ustasha during World War II, and later by fighters of the Croatian Defense Forces (HOS) during the war in the 1990s on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

Večernji list writes that the song "Bojna Čavoglave" began with the forbidden salute "Za dom spremni", and that it is a cry that originated in the Independent State of Croatia (NDH) during World War II, and that it was used by members of the Ustasha movement who served the leader of Nazi Germany, Adolf Hitler.

The Croatian portal Index also states in its text that Tompson began the song Bojna Čavoglave with the exclamation "For home...", to which Hipodrom replied: "Ready!"

Thompson held the biggest concert in Croatian history last night at the Zagreb Hippodrome.

According to Croatian media reports, more than half a million people attended the concert.

Organizers confirmed to HRT that 504.000 people gathered at the Hippodrome.

Croatian media outlet tportal writes that due to flirting with the Ustasha movement, the Croatian singing star has been banned in many European countries, which has also been reported in foreign media these days, especially in Germany, Switzerland and France, which have warned their citizens not to travel to Zagreb this weekend for a concert by a "right-wing pop star" and "a Croatian music legend with pro-Nazi sympathies."

Thompson countered that "it's a song from the Homeland War that is not at all controversial for him and his veteran friends."

"It is a witness to the time when the Croatian state was being created. Anyone who is against that song is against the truth of the Homeland War," said Thompson a few years ago, and in one of his interviews he emphasized that with his music he wants to talk about "a Croatian story full of love for God, family and homeland," according to tportal.

The High Misdemeanor Court ruled in 2020 that the cry "For the homeland, ready" at the beginning of a song is not a violation of public order when performed by the author of the song in its original form.

Although the entire day passed without major incidents or problems, chants of "Ready for home" were also heard before the concert, which was monitored by the police, but they did not react on the spot, according to tportal.

"We are guided by the principle of proportionality in our actions and we must take care not to provoke a larger group of people, but we are recording the public gathering all day and will subsequently analyze the recordings and file misdemeanor charges," the police said.