In June and July 1990, Serb representatives in Croatia openly rejected the new government's proposed amendments to the Constitution of SR Croatia which changed the name of the republic and entered new state symbols. The new Coat of arms of Croatia was known colloquially as "the chessboard" by the Serb population, who associated it with the symbols of the Nazi-allied Independent State of Croatia (known by its Serbo-Croatian initials "NDH") during World War II, although the red and white chessboard is a historical Croatian symbol since 15th century and had already officially been contained in the emblem of the SR Croatia within Yugoslavia. The comparisons between the new government of Croatia and the Ustaše government of the NDH not only evoked the idea of extreme nationalism or fascism but also the genocide of ethnic Serbs by the Ustaše during World War II, a topic that had become part of the mainstream political discourse in the previous two years, with certain Croat politicians disputing the number of Serbs killed.