AFP - Several thousand anti-government protestors, mostly young people, marched through the Croatian capital on Wednesday calling on conservative Prime Minister Jadranka Kosor to step down.
It was another in a series of anti-government protests, organised on Facebook, since late February with demonstrators accusing the government of corruption and mismanaging the economy.
The protestors initially marched through downtown Zagreb without incident, four days after violent clashes between demonstrators and police left dozens injured.
However, late Wednesday the protestors burned a flag of the European Union, which Croatia aspires to join, and a flag of the main opposition Social Democrats, commercial Nova television reported. They also tore up a flag of the ruling Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ).
"We will finish what we have started. ... The corrupt government will have to face reality," the main organiser Ivan Pernar, 25, told the protestors who initially gathered at Zagreb's central Cvjetni Trg square.
As during previous protests, the demonstrators tried to march towards the government seat where protests are banned, with hundreds of others joining them on their way, but riot police blocked them.
They then marched through the centre of Zagreb towards the seat of the HDZ.
"Citizens Hired You, Now You're Fired," read some of the banners carried by the protestors, who chanted "Come on the Streets," "We Want Elections" and "Jadranka Go Away."
Late Wednesday, some 300 demonstrators arrived in front of the building where Kosor lives, which was protected by riot police, and chanted anti-government slogans, local media reported.
On Saturday, 50 people including 32 police officers were injured in violence that erupted when several hundred people, among them football fans, clashed with riot police who prevented them from marching towards the government building.
Anti-government protests were held Wednesday in three other major Croatian towns -- Rijeka, Split and Djakovo -- gathering between 100 and 300 people in each.
Kosor took over the helm of the government in 2009 when her predecessor Ivo Sanader, currently detained on suspicion of corruption and abuse of power, suddenly stepped down.
Croatia, which aspires to become an EU member in 2012, was hard hit by the global economic crisis and has seen negative growth for the past two years.
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