Vukovar Boycott Calls Grow Ahead of Thompson Concert
Vukovar's SDP and the Democratic Serb Alliance are calling for a boycott of Marko Perkovic Thompson's August 29 concert, as Mayor Marijan Pavlicek defends it as a patriotic festival.
The concert by Marko Perkovic Thompson, announced for August 29 in Vukovar’s Gospodarska Zona business district, got a formal boycott call on Monday. It came from the Vukovar branch of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), days after the Democratic Serb Alliance issued its own statement against the show. What began as a dispute over a single concert has grown into something bigger, playing out in a city where Serbs make up about a third of the population and which is surrounded by villages with Serb majorities. The status of the Serb community in Croatia is watched closely from Belgrade, more closely than most other issues in Croatian domestic politics, and this local dispute is being read the same way, as a test of who ultimately backs down.
The Social Democrats in Vukovar say they opposed the concert from the moment it was announced. Their statement claims the singer runs an “aggressive and fascistoid campaign” at his shows that unsettles not only members of the Serb community but other Vukovar residents as well.
What SDP Is Accusing the City Government Of
The Vukovar SDP’s argument goes beyond symbolism. The party says the city is being used “in a usurious and profiteering way” to boost the national ratings of right wing parties and to paper over the problems driving people out of Vukovar. The same statement lists specific city decisions the party objects to:
- ending free kindergarten
- raising public transport fees
- cutting city administration salaries
- lowering berth fees for tourist boats
The party also points to the absence of a pharmacy and specialist health care, saying residents now travel to Ilok just to get a dental x-ray. Its message is that a city losing young people has nothing to gain from a concert that, in its view, only deepens distrust.
Vukovar SDP president Kruno Raguz earlier told Dnevnik Nove TV: “A man who stirs up hatred, bringing him to the city, I think that’s inappropriate. I think people here are under stress.”
The Democratic Serb Alliance’s Demand
Democratic Serb Alliance president Srdjan Milakovic has asked the mayor to reconsider and withdraw the city’s backing for the concert. His assessment left no room for nuance:
“Thompson is completely unacceptable as a performer to the vast majority of members of the Serb community.”
Milakovic raised the same issue at a City Council session, asking the mayor how it was possible to host such a performer in a city with roughly 30 percent Serb population, and whether that squares with the pre election slogan “Vukovar for all.” He called the answer he received a trivialization, since the concert was presented to him as a humanitarian music event.
Mayor Marijan Pavlicek has not backed down. He called the show a festival of patriotism and said he expects it to unfold “in a spirit of unity and patriotism, not in a spirit of hatred toward anyone.” At the session, he responded to Milakovic by recalling the councilman’s earlier statement that “Operation Storm was ethnic cleansing.”
Why the Fight Is Playing Out Inside City Hall
This dispute differs from the usual arguments over Thompson’s concerts in who is leading it. Opposition to the show is not confined to the opposition benches: among those calling for it to be cancelled is Srdjan Kolar, head of the Vukovar branch of SDSS and deputy mayor representing the Serb national minority. He has said he will push for the concert not to happen at all, and that if it does go ahead, it must pass without incident. SDSS councilman Dejan Drakulic has demanded that an organizer be named and that no “Za dom spremni” salutes or songs referencing Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska be allowed at the show.
The disagreement, in other words, is not running between city hall and the street. It is running through city hall itself, with a deputy mayor publicly demanding the cancellation of an event the mayor supports.
Thompson’s team has since responded through Dnevnik Nove TV, rejecting the framing of the dispute along ethnic lines:
“We do not divide citizens by nationality, nor do we speak of a ‘Serb community’ as a separate category, but of Croatian citizens who live in a Croatian city, in the Croatian state.”
Not every Vukovar resident sees a problem. “When a man sings patriotic songs, Croatian songs, I don’t see what the issue is,” a local named Tomislav told the same station.
What Happens Before the End of August
Whether the city stays behind the concert is the mayor’s call, and it is the one lever both SDP and the Democratic Serb Alliance have pointed to. With just under four weeks left before the scheduled date, two pieces of information the public still lacks are expected to surface: who the formal organizer is, and where the proceeds from a show billed as humanitarian will actually go. The answer to that first question will determine whether the demands from Serb representatives have anywhere to land beyond city hall.
