‘No to Nazis on our Streets’ protest to be held against Lukov March in Bulgaria on February 16
A protest entitled “No to Nazis on our Streets” is to be held in Sofia on February 16 as a counter to the Lukov March scheduled for the Bulgarian capital city that day.
The protest will be held at 2pm, with the square in front of the Central Mineral Baths as the meeting point. The Lukov March is scheduled to start at 5pm.
The organisers of the “No to Nazis on our Streets”, Antifa Sofia, said that “for 16 years in mid-February, Sofia has been the capital of neo-Nazism”.
“Nazis and fascists from all over Europe come to Bulgaria, to march together with their Bulgarian adherents in hour of an antisemitic general,” the statement said.
Lukov was the leader of the ultranationalist Union of Bulgarian National Legions from 1942 to 1943 “which clearly proclaimed antisemitism, xenophobia, totalitarianism and fascism”.
Tolerance of neo-Nazi parades was a disgrace for Bulgarian society, the statement. “It is important for each of us to clearly state our position against such events”.
February 2019 will be the 16th time that the Lukov March has been held in Sofia. Antifa’s counter-protest is being held for the seventh time.
Annually recently, the mayor of Sofia has decreed a ban on the Lukov March, but each year, this has been overturned in court.
The statement said that behind the Lukov March, there were formal and informal far-fight, nationalist and “openly fascist” organisations.
The main organiser is the Bulgarian National Union, and participants include members of the VMRO, part of the United Patriots, a partner in government, as well as the Bulgarian National Radical Party, the Association of Bulgarian Football Supporters, the Vyarnost NGO, the restored version of the Union of Bulgarian National Legions, “as well as self-described neo-Nazis such as Kruv i Chest (“Blood and Honour”), National Resistance and Byal Front (“White Front”)”.
The foreign “guests” included a number of organisations, including some forbidden in their own countries – La Falange (Spain); NPD, Die Rechte, Der III Weg (Germany); Terre et people (France), Casa Pound (Italy), Narodowe Odrodziene Polski (Poland), The Nordic Front (Sweden), among others, the statement said.
