KATOLIČKI BLOK I UBISTVO KRALJA ALEKSANDRA

This treatise is part of a larger manuscript about King Aleksandar and his political opponents. In response to the »Balkan Alliance« formed by King Aleksandar, Italy, Hungary and Austria signed a secret alliance in March 1934, named »the Roman protocols«, formally aimed at establishing the mutual cooperation of these countries in foreign politics and economy. In actual fact, this alliance served to strengthen the position of Italy in the region of the Danube Basin and to support Hungarian revisionist aspirations towards Yugoslavia. Thus, the old idea of creating a »Catholic bloc«, which Croatia should enter eventually, was realized. The Vatican, naturally, supported this bloc, while France and England did not oppose it, seeing it primarily as a safeguard against the »anschluss« of Austria to Germany and German penetration. The countries of the »Catholic bloc« aim ed their politics towards unsettling Yugoslavia and in order to achieve this goal they did not shy away from considering the possibility of eliminating its ruler, King Aleksandar, as the »strong man« of the Balkans. Hence, Mussolini supported and financed Pavelić's plans for the assassination of the Yugoslav sovereign. There were training camps for the Croatian ustasha on the territory of Hungary, while Austria, also, offered its hospitality to ustasha leaders who conducted this operation. Before King Aleksandar’s journey to France, the Yugoslav authorities warned the French police of the existing assassination plans but the latter made no attempt to find and deport the Croatian terrorists. After the crime and the death of King Aleksandar (October 9th, 1934, Marseilles), official France did everything in its power to shield Italy and Hungary, on whose territories terrorists were trained, from being held responsible for the crime. The Catholic lobby in France also exerted its influence during the trial and the assassins were, consequently, not sentenced to death but to life imprisonment.