Acting on request of the Levica party, the Constitutional Court began an investigation into the Bulgarian cultural center “Vanco Mihajlov” in Bitola. The court will examine the statute and the program of the center, to determine whether they are in line with the Macedonian Constitution – or if they stir ethnic and religious hatred.

The club is named after the inter-war VMRO commander who was allied with Croatian Nazi leader Ante Pavelic during the Second World War.

Another review, initiated by VMRO-DPMNE official Toni Menkinovski, is being opened into the other recently opened Bulgarian center – “Tsar Boris III” in Ohrid. This center also drew controversy since it’s named after the Bulgarian Tsar who aligned the country with the Axis and implemented the German request to deport the Jews from Macedonia and Thrace – while stopping short of deporting the Jews from Bulgaria proper.

Bulgarian authorities issued a warning to their Macedonian counterparts after the Parliament adopted a law that would put these clubs under additional scrutiny for promoting neo-Nazi ideas. Both clubs were vandalized shortly after they were opened. Macedonian activists in Bulgaria responded by opening a cultural center in Blagoevgrad, named after poet and socialist activist Nikola Jonkov Vapcarov who was killed by the Bulgarian Government during the war.