Leo Marić

Leo Marić is the international secretary of the Croatian far-right Generacija Obnove (Generation of Renewal) party.

2017

Marić appeared at the 2nd Intermarium Support Group conference 2017 in Kyiv.1 The same year he appeared also at the 1st Paneuropa conference on April 28, 2017, in Kyiv.

The summary of his speech published in the framework of the 1st Paneuropa Conference report reads:

The next speaker was Leo Maric, International Secretary of the Croatian Generacija Obnove (Generation of Renewal) party, who, in accord with Józef Piłsudski, believes that the best model of the Intermarium is the Adriatic-Baltic-Black Sea Union instead of its narrower Baltic-Black Sea version. Such a vision, undeniably, meets the newest tendencies in Central Europe towards the restoration of the Intermarium project. The topic of his speech, in turn, resonated with the party’s name: “The Idea of Generational Politics and the Political Platform of Generation of Renewal.”

Like many others, Leo Maric cooperated with Ukrainian nationalists on many occasions, starting with defending Croatian volunteers in the Ukrainian armed forces and the AZOV regiment in particular (there were a plenty of them), the right which was also advocated by Vesna Pusic, Croatian Foreign Minister, in the 2015 conversation with Al Jezeera reporter. In 2016, Leo Maric, back then as the journalist of the Sloboda.hr news portal, was the speaker at the Inaugural conference of the Intermarium Development Assistance Group. He highlighted the preservation of a cultural identity in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe in defiance of Western Cultural Marxism (neo-Trotskyism) and Russian Cultural Stalinism.

In October of 2016, Leo Maric and Frano Cirko were invited to the founding party congress of National Corps. During the visit, they shared their plans to establish their own party that aims at converting a high level of patriotism in a Croatian society into the long-anticipated political changes. February 4, 2017, by a group of young activists under 30 was established a political party of a new generation and of an eponymous title – Generacija Obnove (GO!), meaning the Generation of Renewal, under the presidency of Frano Cirko.

Since its inception, the party has become the partner of National Corps and took a course towards the Intermarium. The day before the Reconquista conference, April 27, 2017, Leo Maric, developing his message at the previous conference and referring to multiple examples of the harmful monopolistic behavior of the EU, explained why the Intermarium countries willing to maintain their cultural values and identity should break free from the economic dependence on the West (“a geoeconomic aspect”). Besides, he once again dwelled on the purpose and possible outcomes of Wage Union.

The main idea of the generational politics is very simple and is understood intuitively: the old generation of politicians cannot keep up with the new challenges and becomes the very personification of the country’s stagnation, its face. According to Leo Maric, the new generation embodies the future of the country, and only the complete renewal (that is, replacement or a “generational shift”) of officials in all structures and fields of the Croatian society (political, economic, juridical, etc.) can make a difference. Further, similar to National Corps taking measures against the Ukrainian oligarchy and foreign monopolists, Generacija Obnove demands lowering the tax burden for the middle and small entrepreneurship and facilitating the private economic initiative. Further, the positive generational difference consists in the fact that only younger patriots can raise the issue of Croatia’s sovereignty and question the benefits of its political dissolution in the international associations like the EU. The same goes for the distribution of the migrant quotas, aggressive multicultural globalization and, overall, ultraliberal agenda in the education system that is imposed by the EU. It is no wonder that Croatian patriots of a new generation view the Intermarium as a means to secure their future and the Croatian generations to come.

Interestingly enough, the main idea of the book by Julien Langella, a young French catholic author who supported the struggle of Ukrainian nationalists, is the same and is well conveyed by the title: “La Jeunesse au Pouvoir” (The Youth in Power). In other words, the advent to power of the new generation of European patriots as the revolt against the political and ideological senility is the path to the renaissance of Europe as a whole.

Finally, Leo Maric disclosed the international relations and activities of GO. The party cooperates with Slovakians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Poles, Balts, recently also Slovenians, and more. Generacija Obnove regularly supports the initiatives of the Intermarium Development Assistance Group and plans its own political education projects.2

In December 2017, Marić headed a National Corps delegation, which was invited to a neo-Nazi conference in Zagreb, entitled "One century after the October Revolution. What can the Right learn frrom the Left?"3 An attendee, the neo-Nazi figurehead Olena Semenyaka, wrote an article about the conference, which was translated into French by the French neo-Nazi Pascal Lassalle, which outlines the scope of the conference as follows3 :

The interventions and presentations covered a wide range of topics from the lessons of Leninism in the organization of the revolutionary process (Kresimir Dzoic) and late post-ideological Soviet futurology (Sviatoslav Vychynskyi) to the strategy of achieving political hegemony through the cultural and intellectual/institutional activities developed by the neo-Marxists Antonio Gramsci and Rudi Dutschke (Leo Maric) and to the phenomenon of right-wing squats (discussed by Witold Dobrowolski using related examples from CasaPound Italia, the Cossack House, the Youth Centre of the National Corps, the activities of the Hogar Social Madrid in Spain and the Bastion Social in France).