Stanimirovic condemned the impunity for cases of hate speech at the Croatian parliament's sessions and also dismissed as unacceptable demands by some of those who took to the streets that the abolition must be stopped.
"This is an attempt to intimidate the Serb community ahead of the forthcoming elections, a population census and submission of requests for property restitution," the SDSS leader said adding that his party would discuss the matter with other members of the ruling coalition in Croatia and with President Josipovic on 25 March.
Pupovac said that the SDSS leadership was concerned with the occurrences of undemocratic and extremely right-wing speeches and demands which he said "undermine everything achieved in inter-ethnic relations in eastern Slavonia and throughout Croatia".
He called on relevant institutions to take measures so as to preserve values of peace and the functioning rule-of-law.
Asked by reporters whether his name was booed at veterans' rallies due to his role in Vukovar in 1991, Stanimirovic said that the answer partly lay in that but that reasons could be also found in his contribution to the peaceful reintegration of the Croatian Danube basin to Croatia and in the fact that he was at the helm of a well-organised political organisation of an ethnic community.
Pupovac said that attacks against Stanimirovic had come from those who "cannot accept the functioning of the Croatian judiciary".
Asked whether there were reactions from the EU to hate language directed against Croatian Serbs, Pupovac said that the SDSS first discussed issues with the government and the Croatian president and if it gave no results, they then contacted EU institutions.