Torcida Sang About Auschwitz and Hitler in Split, and the Founders of HDZ Want an Investigation Into Whether Serbia Is Behind It

Hajduk were back in the main stage of a European competition after 16 years, Poljud was full, and "the Whites" beat Ajax 2:1. That was supposed to be the night Split would remember. Instead, Europe will remember Torcida's march before the Conference League match - and the chants heard in the streets.

"Trample, trample the Jews", "Auschwitz, Auschwitz", "Rise, Adolf" and "Come on, come on, Ustashas." At the head of the column was a yellow Golf with a coffin on the roof, bearing the word Ajax. Hajduk fans also carried a coffin with the Dutch club's name in 1995, when the two clubs met in the Champions League quarter-finals. Thirty-one years later, the script was repeated to the last detail.

Split police arrested four people on suspicion of publicly inciting violence and hatred, and unofficially at least a dozen more are being sought - reportedly people from the very top of Torcida, some of them already known to the judiciary. Article 325 of the Croatian Criminal Code provides for up to three years in prison for this, and for organising a group that incites hatred - from six months to five years. A 24-year-old fan who shouted an antisemitic slur from the stands at Ajax's bench and players has already been given ten days in jail by the misdemeanour court. He had 1.66 per mille of alcohol in his blood.

The world noticed. Israel's Ynet and Israel Hayom wrote about antisemitism aimed at the "Jewish club" and its Israeli international Oscar Gloukh. Britain's Telegraph recalled the long list of fines the Croatian Football Federation has received for fan behaviour. Polish, Dutch, Greek and Romanian media wrote about it too, and the news reached as far as Chile. In the neighbourhood it was carried by Serbia's RTS, Montenegro's RTCG and several media outlets in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and in Macedonia "Sloboden Pečat" published the footage.

Hajduk apologised, but the apology referred to what happened in the stadium - the pyrotechnics that stopped the match in the 77th minute, when the players left the pitch because of the thick smoke. "We also apologise to the competition organiser and to Ajax's management and players, who witnessed scenes we don't want Europe to remember us for," the club said. The chants from the march are being investigated separately by the police. The Croatian government sharply condemned the incident, and President Milanović called for an urgent response from the police, prosecutors and courts.

Then came the most interesting part. The Association of HDZ Founders "Dr Franjo Tuđman" asked the security services to establish whether the incidents were accidental or "staged" to confirm the narratives of the "Serbian world." Those who created the shameful incident "are not ours," they said, and are no better than those who have spent years building an image of "fascist Croatia."

The logic is familiar across the Balkans. When dozens of your fans shout "Rise, Adolf" in the middle of the street, it's easier to ask who staged them than who raised them. The faces are on the footage, the voices are clear, the coffin is a prop with a tradition dating back to 1995 - and some of the first political reactions are looking for a hand from outside. Does anyone in Zagreb really believe a foreign service was driving that coffin too?

Now it's the Croatian judiciary's turn. Article 325 is in force, the police have the footage and already know some of the names. Will it all end with ten days in jail and fines of a few hundred euros each - or with something that actually carries weight? Europe, at least this week, is watching.