Did Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenković say that farmers and Croatians are terrorists? No, that's not true: He said that Croatian security services had identified two extremist groups and two individuals who, they said, would "destroy the social order using violent methods" among pig farmers protesting government measures to combat an outbreak of African swine fever.
The claim appeared in a video on TikTok on December 3, 2023, no longer available but archived here, with the caption (translated from Croatian to English by Lead Stories staff):
POOR AND MISERABLE. 3.12.2023.
Andrej Plenković:
- farmers are terrorists
- Croatians are terrorists
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Wed Dec 6 08:35:09 2023 UTC)
Pig farmers in Eastern Croatia have been protesting (archived here) government measures that include a ban on the slaughter of pigs (archived here) on family farms following an outbreak of African swine flu in 2023. The government passed several control measures (archived here) for the suppression of African swine fever in Croatia, including prohibiting slaughters on family farms that traditionally take place in late November. The ban went into effect at the end of June 2023.
Ministry of Agriculture State Secretary Mladen Pavić (archived here) said that as of late 2023 in the eastern area of Vukovar-Srijem County, over 18,000 pigs had been destroyed, affecting about 780 households of family farms.
On December 3, 2023, Prime Minister Plenković gave a statement (archived here) (as translated):
Members of one of the two extremist groups identified by the security services, people who would destroy the social order using violent methods, according to the reports of the Security intelligence agency, joined as spokesmen for these same quasi-farmers and quasi-pig breeders.
According to Croatian news agency Nova TV (archived here), officials from the Security Intelligence Agency were closely monitoring two suspects who participated in protests on December 2, 2023. Both reject accusations of political extremism, and one has filed a criminal complaint against officials.
