The political platform Možemo published a greeting on its official channels for Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day, but the focus was not on the festive tone, but on the visually damaged Croatian flag.
The political platform Možemo, on the national holiday, Victory and Homeland Thanksgiving Day and the Day of Croatian Defenders, August 6, 2026, posted a greeting on its official channels whose visual identity overshadowed every word written in it. In the foreground of the post, namely, stood a damaged and torn Croatian flag, and that sight, instead of a dignified commemoration of a key date from the Homeland War, immediately sparked a wave of outrage.
While the textual part of the greeting invoked defenders and civilian victims, the choice of accompanying photo was deemed, especially in veteran circles, a scandalous detail that cannot be dismissed as a mere oversight. It is precisely this contrast between words about peacemaking and the image of a torn state symbol that the public condemned most fiercely.
Displaying a damaged flag does not fall into the realm of an aesthetic failure, but constitutes a direct violation of the regulations of the Republic of Croatia. The Law on the Coat of Arms, Flag, and Anthem unequivocally prohibits the display of state symbols that are damaged or in any way undermine the dignity of the state, and that is exactly what happened on the day celebrating the victory in the Homeland War.
That a parliamentary party decided to serve the public an image of a compromised symbol on a national holiday raises a question that Hrvatski glasnik, in its analysis, offers two possibilities: whether it is a matter of sheer negligence or deliberate disparagement of statehood.
The text of the greeting, with its emphasis on peacemaking, combined with the visual of a torn flag, takes on a completely different dimension, one in which the story of universal reconciliation collides with an image that reflects an attitude toward the symbols of Croatian victory and independence. No matter how much the idea of reconciliation is promoted in public, a torn flag on the day celebrating victory leaves no room for doubt.
Showing the state flag in a damaged condition precisely on that date, under the banner under which defenders defended the homeland, is rightly considered a direct disparagement of their sacrifices, and of all those who, under that same banner, won independence.
