Addressing the meeting, Sea, Tourism, Transport and Development Minister Bozidar Kalmeta said that events from September 1943, notably the decision to unify Istria with Croatia, were an important step in the antifascist struggle which made Croatia one of the world's free nations.
Istria County prefect Ivan Jakovcic said antifascism, freedom and national tolerance had always been respected in Istria. He condemned the conduct of some Slovene politicians and extremists over a recent border incident, and advocated seeking international arbitration so that the Croatian-Slovene border could finally be identified.
Jakovcic invited Slovene President Janez Drnovsek and his Croatian counterpart Stjepan mesic to a big antifascist rally due to be held in Istria in early November.
The leader of the Istrian Antifascist Alliance, Miho Valic, said Croatia's antifascists supported legislation banning the glorification of symbols of Nazism and Fascism in the name of 17,000 Istrians who were the victims of fascism.
Valic said it was high time to stop with the "unprincipled treatment" of antifascism and the distortion of history in textbooks. He urged the government to give antifascist fighters their rights back and putting them in the same category as Homeland War veterans.