In a satirical column for N1, Boris Dežulović catalogs a quarter-century-old practice of Ustasha actors marking territory by urinating on anti-fascist monuments.
In his column for N1, published on July 29, 2026, Boris Dežulović analyzes the long-standing phenomenon of public urination on anti-fascist monuments in Croatia, calling it 'state-building urination'. The occasion is the placement of twenty plastic chemical toilets right in front of the Šubićevac memorial park, at the spot where in 1941 and 1942 Italian fascists executed 42 partisans, including Rade Končar. According to Dežulović, the toilets were placed there by the company Infinite Show, the organizer of the upcoming concert by Marko Perković Thompson at the nearby stadium.
Dežulović recalls that the first documented case was on May 6, 2000, when Biserka Legradić from Hrvatski Blagaj, presenting herself as the mother of a fallen defender, squatted on the monument to the victims of the Ustasha massacre in Veljun and said: "I took off my panties and peed on their monument! This is Croatia, and if I want to pee on any part of Croatia, I will!" It later emerged, the columnist writes, that her son was not a defender and that she went unpunished.
Since then, Ustasha actors have repeatedly performed similar acts. On the eve of Victory Day in 2011, a group from the HSP in Čakovec urinated on the same monument. On Anti-Fascist Struggle Day, June 22, 2019, Branimir Sablić filmed himself urinating on the ossuary in Sinj's Đardin park, saying: "I, Branimir Sablić, old Ustasha, here I am, on this partisan day, with this my Ustasha dick, going to piss all over this place..." In 2021, Dražen Keleminec and others set up a tent next to the monument in Srb and urinated on the memorial area for days, while in early 2026, a man from Koprivnica was filmed urinating on the monument to fallen partisans in Slatina, for which he was fined just 50 euros by the Misdemeanor Court.
The columnist highlights the only case of strict punishment, that of Tomislav Merčep. On March 10, 1997 in Split, as Dežulović describes, he 'put on a straw hat and dropped his pants' and urinated on flower beds arranged in a photomontage of Feral Tribune. The Split Misdemeanor Court fined him 50,000 kuna, reasoning that 'members of the Croatian people have for centuries belonged not only spatially but also civilizational and culturally to Central European countries... so the described act aroused a feeling of disgust and revolt.' However, the fine was paid by the editorial board of Feral, and the reporter Neven Jurica, then head of the Government's Office for Communications, later used that money, Dežulović claims, as ambassador to the UN for dinners, cosmetics, and plane tickets.
Dežulović also draws a historical parallel with Anđelko Brajković, who in 1971 together with Miro Barešić killed the ambassador of the SFRY to Sweden, Aleksandar Rolović. At the trial in Stockholm, Brajković stated: "My hands were covered in blood because his blood was everywhere, so I went to the window, urinated on my bloody hands, and wiped them on the curtain." With this image, Dežulović makes the point that 'territory was marked, and hands remained clean,' criticizing the authorities who, on one hand, reward such actors with apartments and jobs, and on the other, lightly punish those who ritually urinate on historical monuments.
Returning to Šubićevac and the verses engraved on the memorial plaque ('for your spring - I gave my life'), Dežulović concludes with a satirical paraphrase: 'for your spring - I peed and shat.' Commenting how modern 'assholes' have found a way not to provoke 'disgust and revolt' by hiding in 'custom-made mobile chemical toilets,' the columnist finally invokes a defiant voice from outside: 'Pee on our chests, assholes!'
