Like yesterday, today's debate too was marked by speeches about the good and bad that anti-fascism had brought to Croatia and Croatians and under the pretext of which, some deputies said, the gravest crimes against Croats had been committed.
Nenad Stazic of the SDP said that the purpose of the declaration was to accentuate anti-fascist values as the fundamental values of united Europe.
"Ten years ago, when the 50th anniversary of the victory over fascism was celebrated, the (Croatian) state leadership led by President (Franjo) Tudjman was not invited, not because his anti-fascist past was forgotten, but because of his tolerance of occurrences which negated anti-fascism. We must not allow to be humiliated again," Stazic said.
In the numerous rebuttals provoked by Stazic's statements, deputies of the Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) and the Party of Rights (HSP) criticised the SDP and the IDS for trying to whitewash communist crimes and mixing those crimes with anti-fascism, adding that they would support the declaration if it condemned communist crimes.
Milorad Pupovac of the Independent Democratic Serb Party (SDSS) described these claims as inflammatory language and non-recognition of anti-fascist values, which he said were stated in the preamble to the Croatian Constitution.
Independent deputy Ivo Loncar severely criticised this statement, saying that Pupovac was relativising anti-fascism as one of the sacred things in Croatia.
"The tragedy and irony is even bigger because we have two Chetniks sitting in the Sabor today," Loncar said earning a warning by Speaker Vladimir Seks, who also warned Popovac for insulting the deputies.
Andrija Hebrang of the HDZ said that Croatian anti-fascism ceased to exist in 1943 because it had become part of Yugoslav anti-fascism, which he said served to eliminate Croatian anti-fascists.
"We should not consider the declaration if we cannot admit that part of the anti-fascist ideology was used to eliminate political opponents," Hebrang said.