Two participants in an anti-government protest in Zagreb were arrested on Wednesday evening for disturbing the public peace by preventing members of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) from exiting the hotel where they had attended a ceremony marking the 21st anniversary of the establishment of the HDZ branch in Zagreb's Tresnjevka neighbourhood, while 12 other protesters were arrested for sitting on the ground in front of a police van as the police were trying to carry off the two arrested protesters.
The otherwise peaceful anti-government protest, which started around 6 pm in the city's Cvjetni Trg square, bringing together around 100 people, soon turned into a verbal scuffle between the protesters and HDZ members who were leaving the party ceremony in Tresnjevka.
Riot police intervened to prevent the verbal scuffle from turning into a fight.
Around 50 most persistent protesters were shouting "You plundered the country", "Jaco, go away", "Mafia", and "Thieves" at the HDZ members walking by.
Before this incident, the protesters, of whom there were several hundred at the peak of the protest - the lowest turnout so far - took a peaceful walk through the city centre, blocking traffic, from the Cvjetni Trg square to the central Trg bana Jelacica square, and on to Hebrang Street, Savska Street and Jukiceva Street to the Four Points Hotel, where the HDZ ceremony was being held.
The next anti-government protest was announced for April 1.
Also on Wednesday evening, around 100 people staged a peaceful anti-government protest in the northern Adriatic city of Rijeka.
