In 2018, B’nai B’rith Europe President Serge Dahan and Eric Engelmayer, member of B’nai B’rith Europe Executive Committee, met with Her Excellency Mrs. Maya Dobreva, Ambassador of Bulgaria to Belgium and Luxembourg. The meeting was arranged following our recent letter sent to the Bulgarian embassy denouncing the march, that was organized last February through Sofia by nationalists to honor a World War II pro-nazi General. 

Every year since 2003, far-right activists and neo-nazis have been taking part in this march. Our B’nai B’rith Carmel Lodge in Sofia has been following these developments closely and was the first organization to denounce it.

President Dahan drew Ambassador Dobreva’s attention to the worrying fact that the number of participants to this march has increased from tens initially to some two thousands this year, and that it now attracts a number of far-right activists from other countries. He asked for appropriate measures to be taken to prevent this march from happening again in the future. 

Ambassador Dobreva agreed that this was an alarming trend and confirmed that for a number of years already, the march had been prohibited, with this prohibition being overruled by an administrative Court that considered it was not possible to judge in advance whether illegal action would be taken during the march. She further informed us that the Bulgarian Government is now willing to propose a legislation that would result in criminalizing this march, an announcement which was very welcome. No timing for this legislative proposal was confirmed however. 

More generally, Bulgaria has taken various steps to fight antisemitism: it is a full member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance since November 2018, has been among the first countries to adopt the IHRA working definition of Antisemitism and has appointed in 2017 a national coordinator for the fight against antisemitism. 

Other topics discussed during the meeting included prevention of Racism and Antisemitism through education, the fight against antisemitism at the EU, and the problematic of the Carnival of Aalst’s recognition as heritage of humanity by UNESCO.