Strongly condemning the chauvinistic violence in Vukovar, the government calls on all political parties to clearly distance themselves from the trampling of the fundamental values of our democracy, and to clearly and publicly speak out against the spreading of hate, a government statement said.
The government especially called on the political party which in 2009, at the Vukovar City Council, as well as before the legal prerequisites for bilingualism were acquired, voted for a city statute that gave national minorities the right to use and display their insignia and flags.
"Protests are a legal way of expressing dissatisfaction, but violence and direct threats against the authorities and the constitutional order represent a grave breach of law and a mockery of democracy. This must be clear to the protesters in Vukovar and to those who support them," the government said in the statement.
It recalled that state administration bodies today set up Latin and Cyrillic signs in Vukovar, implementing the constitutional law on national minorities' rights and doing so under the law on the use of the languages and alphabets of national minorities in Croatia, which were then forcibly taken down and destroyed.
Under the constitutional law, adopted by a two-thirds parliamentary majority in 2002, the right to equal official use of the language and alphabet of a national minority is exercised in a unit of local self-government where the minority makes up for at least one-third of the population.