Bulgarian right-wing extremists and nationalists have commemorated the pro-Nazi general and former minister of war, Hristo Lukov. On Saturday evening in the capital Sofia they held a mourning ceremony at the home of the general who was shot by communist partisans on February 13, 1943. There was a heavy police presence, state television BNT reported.
The then Kingdom of Bulgaria was allied with Nazi Germany during World War II. Lukov was Minister of War from 1935 to 1938. Until 1943 he was at the head of the Federation of Bulgarian National Legions, which sympathized with Nazi Germany.
Counteraction in the city center
A Lukov march in honor of the general planned for Saturday evening by right-wing extremists was banned by the mayor of Sofia, Vasil Tersiev, after objections from several parties. “Hate, discrimination and anti-Semitism have no place in our country,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry in Sofia.
Right-wing extremists and nationalists dressed in black marched through downtown Sofia on Saturday afternoon. They wanted to commemorate the “victims of communist terror” in Bulgaria after the communists came to power in 1944. There was also a counter-action: anti-fascist-minded people protested with a street parade in the city center under the motto “no Nazis on the streets.”
