The rally against conscription was organised by the Workers Front. Participants asked for "investing in education and not warfare" and shouting "build factories, not barracks".
We want a society which will invest in education, science, culture and healthcare, not in planes, helicopters, tanks, tents not even made in Croatia because those in power have destroyed production, the anti-conscription demonstrators said.
They carried banners, some of which said "A worker, not a warrior", "Cannon fodder doesn't feed a hungry people" and "War against militarisation." Banging drums, they shouted "War is over", "We won't die for tycoons and politicians", "I'm not a child of Croatia, but of a father and a mother" and "Society doesn't need militarisation, but education".
The anti-conscription demonstrators said they wanted a better and more just society, a society of tolerance and solidarity, and not the creation of a climate of preparation for conflicts. They said salaries were low and late, that people were fleeing Croatia and that it was necessary "to resist the political elites which are trying to push people into divisions, conflicts and, if allowed, wars in which we and our children will die, not theirs."
Marko Milosevic of the Workers Front said nobody wanted to go to war for the interests of NATO's geopolitical elites.
The real enemies are not elsewhere but among us, they vow to fight for this country to the last drop of blood, but not theirs, they want an easy life for themselves and fear, insecurity, poverty and brutal exploitation for the majority, he said.
The rally in favour of conscription was organised by a war veterans association from Djurdjevac. It was supported by MP Zeljko Glasnovic who said Croatia, like other states, needed active or passive reservists and that it had an obligation to NATO "to increase the military budget to two percent."
Recent events, joint military exercises, the attempted coup in Montenegro, and the situation in the Bosnian Serb entity demand conscription, he said. "Who can be against? They are clowns, remnants of the Yugoslav regime." Glasnovic added that young men were more and more effeminate every year. "Perhaps there's too much oestrogen in the water."
Both rallies were held under tight police security.