citizens beyond walls
4. FIGHTING RIGHT-WING EXTREMISM IN BULGARIA: GOOD PRACTICES One morning in November 2014 the capital of Bulgaria woke up to see the city centre marked with posters against sexism, racism and xenophobia. The posters had three figures looking down, while on the bottom there was a fist breaking a swastika. The message was shouted in black and white – a capitalized word “SHAME”, followed by the clarification: “because of all closed eyes against racism, sexism and xenophobia. Stop the indifference!” It was not clear who exactly stood behind this action, but placing the posters close to the Ministry of Interior and on one of the main streets in the city was a clear sign that this was a wakeup call for the authorities and the society. The anonymity of the action raises the question of how difficult it must be to openly stand up against the described representatives of the extreme right-wing spectrum. We asked the representatives of a few NGOs the following question: “HAVE YOU OR ANY OF YOUR NGO’S MEMBERS BEEN VERBALLY OR PHYSICALLY APPROACHED BY A PERSON/GROUP THAT CAN BE DESCRIBED AS RIGHT-WING EXTREMIST?” Indeed, there were some negative answers; however, the majority were similar to the following responses: “A demonstration has been held in front of our offices on Friday, September 12th, 2014. The demonstration was organized by the “far-right” or better said neo-totalitarian party named BNS-ND, that was running for the preliminary elections in Bulgaria. The demonstrators were shouting threats and insults toward our staff (including our chairperson) and this whole thing happened in front of the uniformed policemen and minor children that some of the demonstrators were leading with themselves”. Bulgarian Helsinki Committee representative
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SHAME: because of all closed eyes against racism, sexism and xenophobia.