- Following the shameful and insulting post on the private Facebook profile of HDZ member and my son Ivan Djakic, I hereby condemn in the strongest terms such conduct on the part of any HDZ member, including my son, and I apologise and express my regret at the incident and the thoughtless conduct of the young man, who was not brought up to hate or spread hate speech - reads Josip Djakic's statement.
The 22-year-old Ivan Djakic on Monday posted on his Facebook wall a shocking photograph showing a person wearing Ustasha insignia holding the severed head of a person wearing Chetnik insignia. "Merry Christmas to all the Serb 'friends'," he wrote under the photograph.
On Monday evening the HDZ condemned the post and said it would launch disciplinary proceedings against Djakic as his conduct was contrary to the party statute.
Ivan Djakic deleted the post soon after making it public. In a statement to the Index web portal, which contacted him, he admitted to having posted the photograph, adding that he apologised to all whom he had insulted.
- I shared a friend's post and deleted it after one minute. That is not my opinion and I apologise to all whom I have insulted and wish them a Merry Christmas - Djakic said.
On Tuesday morning, Ivan Djakic resigned from the HDZ branch in Virovitica.
His father interprets this as his son's admission that he made a mistake.