Protests are planned in Bitola today, as a large delegation of Bulgarian officials, including Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, Vice President Iliana Iotova and former Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva will attend the opening of a Bulgarian cultural center. The association of WW2 fighters from Bitola and the leftist Levica party protest the event as the club is named after Ivan – Vanco – Mihajlov, a controversial right wing Macedonian liberation figure who supported a Bulgarian led Macedonia and sought the support of Nazi Germany.

The association of partisan fighters says that the club will “promote and rehabilitate the Fascist ideology, militarism and the anti-Macedonian policies from the period of the Second World War, while denying the liberation struggle of the Macedonian people and its accomplishments that affirmed the unique Macedonian national identity and the Macedonian nation state”.

Levica called on its supporters to gather in the center of the city at 13h to “express their revolt”.

We strongly condemn the decision to allow this club to open in Macedonia and the silence from the Government of the Republic of Macedonia, which indirectly supports rehabilitation of Fascism, imperialism and anti-Macedonianism, the party added.