{Translation from Croatian by Vman; translator's notes will be given in brackets and italicized, like this}

The Matija Gubec school in Zagreb's Knežžija quarter has a peculiar catechist {= teacher of Religious Education}. While Krešimir Bagarić ought to be teaching his pupils Catholic catechesis, love and forgiveness, he instead tells them which Croatian politicians ought to be killed, whose heads should be impaled on a spike, and he also praises a war criminal, the Serb general Ratko Mladić.

Pupils encourage the catechist in his hatred

Index has obtained a recording of Bagarić's ranting at a lecture for an eighth grade class. One of the pupils recorded it. This is not the first time Bagarić has acted this way, so the child summoned the courage to tape the catechist and deliver the recording to Index. Some children's voices were changed and surnames hidden in the recording in order to protect their identities - even the voices of those who are star pupils and encourage their teacher's hatred.

{audio of Bagarić's rant (in Croatian)}

Impaling people on a spike, all the way to Rijeka and Zagreb

For starters, teacher Bagarić explained to the pupils how he thinks Operation Storm should have looked like.

“We're fools, we should have allowed two corridors {for the Serb refugees and army that were fleeing}. One to Zagreb, the other to Rijeka {major cities in Croatia, they hadn't been occupied by Serb forces}. So after their [citizens'] heads were impaled on spikes, then we come in. That's what should have happened to the fine gentlemen in Zagreb who think that Croatia ends in Karlovac {a city not very far from Zagreb that was on the frontlines during the war}. Idiots and cretins. Short-sighted,” Bagarić put forth as his tactical plan. But that wasn't enough for him. The recording was made in the immediate aftermath of the verdict against Slobodan Praljak, so Bagarić dedicated most of his presentation to the situation in Bosnia and Herzegovina, throwing in praise for the [war] crimes [Bosnian Serb army general and Chief of Staff] Ratko Mladić committed against the Bosniaks.

The General was right

“It turns out that the General was right. He protected his own people. The General was right when it comes to Serb interests. While we have suckers. With all due respect to suckers. Even a teacher can be crazy sometimes,” Bagarić added a bit of self-criticism along with the praise.

Following his praise for the man who ordered the killing of thousands of Muslims [in Srebrenica], who kept [Bosnian capital city] Sarajevo under siege for years, who prior to that had no qualms about killing [Croatian] people in Dalmatia, Bagarić then expounded to the students on who in Croatia ought to be killed.

Hanging, suicide with three bullets to the back, being thrown into a septic tank

“Two former presidents and one former minister of foreign affairs ought to be hanged for this, right away. On the double. The man {Stipe Mesić, former President of Croatia} opened the presidential safe and gave away the transcripts. Damn your family to the seventh generation, you traitor. Filthy, smelly traitor. May you never have peace,” the catechist cursed during religious ed class. But a curse and the invocation of hanging weren't enough for him. Bagarić gave other suggestions as well.

“You have the minister of foreign affairs, Vesna Pusić, who speaks openly around the world. You don't have that anywhere but here. Try to imagine a French minister doing a single thing against the Republic. You'll just disappear. Take your pick - heart attack, brain stroke, suicide with three bullets to the back, however it goes. Only we give our prostitutes and traitors important positions.

Only we are such a pathetic nation, there is no nation more pathetic than the Croats,” claimed Bagaric, who has an interesting perspective on Christian love. Bagarić once more returned to the subject of Mesić and Vesna Pusić, stating that they require “a bullet to the head on the double. Throw them into the nearest septic tank. The traitor.”

Croats are 4.2 million cretins

In addition to the aforementioned insults, Bagarić graced the Croatian people with epithets such as “ungrateful rabble, morons, cretins, dunces, 4.2 million cretins”. We repeat, this was during religious education classes.

“We've got neoliberal democratic cretins who think gay is ok and that all of us ought to hold hands together under the rainbow flag,” teacher Bagarić said, adding a bit of homophobic message. At one moment he also commented on his colleagues, the teachers of the Matija Gubec Elementary School.

The colleagues celebrate the Day of the Republic

“You know, in the staff room, it's the Day of the Republic* for 50 percent of the employees,” he claimed, probably considering them to be Yugoslavs or at the very least nostalgic for the former state.

{* The Day of the Republic was a holiday during the socialist Yugoslavia. It was celebrated on the 29th of November. By accusing people of celebrating it, Bagarić wants to imply that they are closet Yugoslavs (read: traitors), closet communists (read: godless traitors) and/or hate everything Croat. All of which are unicorn concepts in modern day Croatia, that is, they are almost non-existent. Simply put, he's basically verbally bludgeoning everyone to the left of Donald Trump.}

We asked the school's principal, Ljiljana Klinger, for an explanation regarding the way Bagarić holds his classes. She answered a few of our questions very briefly.

The principal uses the Vatican Agreements as a cop-out

“In accordance with the Agreements between the Holy See and the Republic of Croatia, the appointment of catechists is within the juristiction of the Catechist Office, as is the responsibility for catechists' professional development and progress. That said, if these allegations are accurate and truthful, there is no doubt that serious professional and legal sanctions will be undertaken. For such drastic offenses we are also obliged to involve the other relevant institutions,” replied the principal of the school, which is - in addition to children from the Knežžija quarter - also attended by the children of foreign diplomats and foreigners working in Zagreb. The school, part of whose teaching is done in the English language, has long been reputed to be one of the best schools in Zagreb, having earned the City of Zagreb Award.