World News | North Macedonia bans names associated with fascism

SKOPJE, Nov. 2 (AP) — North Macedonia’s parliament passed a law Wednesday banning organizations and cultural clubs from using names believed to be associated with fascism, in a move against Bulgarian clubs with controversial figures in the country. name and sparked protests.

The proposed law passed with 67 votes out of 120 MPs.

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The law prohibits political parties and cultural clubs from using symbols and personal names that are associated with fascism or are believed to be directed against other religious or racial groups.

Last month, hundreds of left-wing supporters and nationalists protested in the southern town of Ohrid against a Bulgarian national association named after Bulgaria’s King Boris III. Bulgaria is allied with Nazi Germany.

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Protesters held signs reading “No Negotiations with Fascists” and threw eggs and stones at the police-guarded club grounds. Earlier this year, another Bulgarian ethnocultural club caused a stir in North Macedonia by adopting the name of another divisive WWII figure.

Boris III reigned from 1918 to his death in 1943 and oversaw Bulgaria’s alliance with the Axis powers during World War II. This move enabled Bulgaria to occupy neighboring Greece, Romania and parts of what is now North Macedonia. The Bulgarian army accepted Nazi Germany’s demands to round up and deport Jews from the occupied areas, but Boris successfully resisted pressure to face a similar fate for Bulgarian Jews.

Jewish community groups in North Macedonia have expressed shock at the choice of the name for the Bulgarian ethnic group.

Under the new legislation, the names of newly opened Bulgarian clubs are controversial and must be changed within three months or face deletion from the central registry, where all clubs and companies must be registered.

Relations between North Macedonia and neighbouring Bulgaria have been poor, mainly due to differences over the region’s history and culture that led Bulgaria to block North Macedonia from joining the European Union.

Bulgaria accused the Skopje government of disrespecting shared cultural and historical ties. Sofia’s main demands include the recognition of the North Macedonian language of Bulgarian origin, revision of history textbooks and recognition of the Bulgarian minority.

The size of the Bulgarian community in North Macedonia is a matter of debate. Official figures for the country’s 2021 census put the country’s population at 3,504, or about 0.2 percent of the total population. Bulgaria disputed this figure, noting that over the past two decades, some 90,000 out of some 2 million people in North Macedonia had acquired dual Bulgarian citizenship based on family roots.

Although still named Macedonia, North Macedonia has a decades-long cultural and historical dispute with Greece. Eventually, the country was renamed the “North” and Athens dropped its opposition to its neighbors joining NATO and the European Union. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from the Syndicated News feed, the body of the content may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)