Addressing the event, Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor said that anti-fascism was a value in itself and that downplaying its importance was intolerable just as the downplaying of the importance of the 1990s Homeland War and its revision was intolerable.

Kosor recalled that the Croatian parliament had adopted a declaration confirming that values of the anti-fascist struggle were built into the foundations of the Croatian state, but that anti-fascism was not the same as Communism.

The PM stressed that Croatia would soon complete negotiations on its admission to the European Union as the 28th member and that it shared the EU's values of freedom and democracy and denounced any totalitarianism.

Parliament Speaker Luka Bebic said that Croatia was today honouring all people killed in the fight against Nazism and Fascism in WWII.

The victory over Fascism and Nazism is the greatest accomplishment of human civilisation and proves that the victims' sacrifices were not in vain and that their courage is eternal, Bebic said, recalling that the first anti-fascist military formation in this part of Europe was the Sisak Partisan Unit which made the Croatian anti-fascist movement one of the oldest ones.

President Ivo Josipovic's envoy Predrag Matic said that the anti-fascist movement in Croatia had great popular support and that its significance did not reflect only in military successes but also in the successful organisation of the post-war government.

The Croatian people sided with the victors in WWII, thus securing its statehood and sovereignty in the former federation that preceded the modern Croatian state, said Matic.

The ceremony at the "Vatroslav Lisinski" hall was also addressed by Vesna Culinovic Konstantinovic, president of the national association of anti-fascist fighters and anti-fascists SABA, and by Russian Ambassador Robert Markaryan.