(Brussels, February 22, 2023) – The European Jewish Congress has called on Bulgarian officials to once again ban a neo-Nazi march through the nation’s capital, Sofia.
The annual Lukov March is a torchlit parade which honours Hristo Lukov, the leader of the Nazi-supporting Union of Bulgarian National Legions, which backed the deportation of more than 10,000 Jews from Bulgarian-occupied Thrace and Macedonia to the Nazi Treblinka death camp in Poland.
“There can be no place for commemorative marches in support of wartime Nazi collaborators through a European capital,” EJC President Ariel Muzicant said.
The march is set for Saturday night, February 25.
While it has taken place since 2003, Sofia’s mayor as well as its then prime minister, Boiko Borisov, successfully prevented the march going ahead in 2021.
“The legal framework exists to ban this march and the police have succeeded in the past to prevent it happening,” Muzicant added. “No European Jewish community, including our affiliate in Bulgaria, should have to witness such marches, after the trauma of the Shoah.”
“We call on all public authorities in Bulgaria to take the necessary action in the coming days to ensure that this festival of hate does not take place.”
