Members of the Political System Committee of the Macedonian Parliament yesterday discussed the proposed changes to the law on association that would ban organizations that honor Nazi figures. The proposal is being fast tracked through Parliament after several Bulgarian organizations, with the full support of the Bulgarian state, opened a club named after Vanco Mihajlov, and then another named after Tsar Boris III.

VMRO-DPMNE member of Parliament Rasela Mizrahi, who is Jewish, said that the law will put an end to this recent practice and will ban organizations “whose goals, activities and programs violently undermine the constitutional order, incite military aggression, intolerance, hatred, genocide, extermination, promote or approve of fascism, nazism, national-socialism and the Third Reich, and undertake terror related activities”, Mizrahi said.

The ruling coalition, which has been cowed by Bulgaria and protested but did not react to the opening of the clubs, supports the law. It is still not clear whether the law will be applied retroactively – the draft contains a retroactive clause but it could be seen as unconstitutional.