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After outcry, Bulgaria bars neo-Nazis from marching in tribute to Nazi collaborationist leader
(JTA) — At the last minute, Nazi sympathizers from around Europe were blocked from marching in the streets of Sofia, Bulgaria’s capital, on Saturday, to honor Hristo Lukov, the World War II-era leader of a Nazi collaborationist group.
The Lukov March had been held by the far-right Bulgarian National Union-New Democracy Party almost every year since 2003 and has become a rallying point for far-right movements from around the continent.
It has also been a galvanizing event for counter-protesters. They had planned to hold a “No Nazis on Our Streets” rally outside Sofia’s Palace of Justice during the march, according to the Sofia Globe. “In spite of the organizers’ claims that it is simply a tribute to a ‘national hero,’ Lukov March has become the trademark event of fascist organizations in Bulgaria,” Antifa Sofia said in a statement to the newspaper. “It normalizes the presence of people with clear extremist views.”
City officials in Sofia had long sought to ban the march but were usually blocked from doing so by the courts. A ban was upheld in 2021, but the march went on in 2022. This year, city officials as well as leaders of Bulgaria’s small Jewish community asked the court to reinstate the ban, which it did on Saturday, hours before nationalists were set to march with torches through the city center.
If the march went on, Alexander Oscar, the leader of the Bulgarian Jewish umbrella group, Shalom, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, “it will be a huge humiliation for the country.”
The World Jewish Congress and American Jewish Committee had also exhorted the Bulgarian government to prevent the march.
In canceling the march, “the Bulgarian government and Bulgarian civil society have sent an unequivocal message that antisemitism, racial hatred and all other forms of xenophobia and intolerance have no place in contemporary Bulgaria,” the WJC said in a statement on Sunday. “In so doing, they have set a powerful example, to be emulated by other countries that face similar challenges which have no place in contemporary Europe.”
The march stands in contrast to Bulgaria’s own Holocaust history, when the country was one of the few in Eastern Europe to largely protect its own Jews, saving all 48,000 from deportation to Nazi concentration camps. However, as an ally of Nazi Germany, Bulgaria was involved in orchestrating the Holocaust in the regions of neighboring Greece and Yugoslavia that it occupied. More than 10,000 Jews from those regions were sent to their deaths at Treblinka, an act supported by Lukov’s Union of Bulgarian National Legions.
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Tucker’s Ideas About Jews Come from Darkest Corners of the Internet, Says Huckabee After Combative Interview
US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee looks on during the day he visits the Western Wall, Judaism’s holiest prayer site, in Jerusalem’s Old City, April 18, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – In a combative interview with US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee, right-wing firebrand Tucker Carlson made a host of contentious and often demonstrably false claims that quickly went viral online. Huckabee, who repeatedly challenged the former Fox News star during the interview, subsequently made a long post on X, identifying a pattern of bad-faith arguments, distortions and conspiracies in Carlson’s rhetorical style.
Huckabee pointed out his words were not accorded by Carlson the same degree of attention and curiosity the anchor evinced toward such unsavory characters as “the little Nazi sympathizer Nick Fuentes or the guy who thought Hitler was the good guy and Churchill the bad guy.”
“What I wasn’t anticipating was a lengthy series of questions where he seemed to be insinuating that the Jews of today aren’t really same people as the Jews of the Bible,” Huckabee wrote, adding that Tucker’s obsession with conspiracies regarding the provenance of Ashkenazi Jews obscured the fact that most Israeli Jews were refugees from the Arab and Muslim world.
The idea that Ashkenazi Jews are an Asiatic tribe who invented a false ancestry “gained traction in the 80’s and 90’s with David Duke and other Klansmen and neo-Nazis,” Huckabee wrote. “It has really caught fire in recent years on the Internet and social media, mostly from some of the most overt antisemites and Jew haters you can find.”
Carlson branded Israel “probably the most violent country on earth” and cited the false claim that Israel President Isaac Herzog had visited the infamous island of the late, disgraced sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
“The current president of Israel, whom I know you know, apparently was at ‘pedo island.’ That’s what it says,” Carlson said, citing a debunked claim made by The Times reporter Gabrielle Weiniger. “Still-living, high-level Israeli officials are directly implicated in Epstein’s life, if not his crimes, so I think you’d be following this.”
Another misleading claim made by Carlson was that there were more Christians in Qatar than in Israel.
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Pezeshkian Says Iran Will Not Bow to Pressure Amid US Nuclear Talks
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) Summit 2025, in Tianjin, China, September 1, 2025. Iran’s Presidential website/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Saturday that his country would not bow its head to pressure from world powers amid nuclear talks with the United States.
“World powers are lining up to force us to bow our heads… but we will not bow our heads despite all the problems that they are creating for us,” Pezeshkian said in a speech carried live by state TV.
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Italy’s RAI Apologizes after Latest Gaffe Targets Israeli Bobsleigh Team
Milano Cortina 2026 Olympics – Bobsleigh – 4-man Heat 1 – Cortina Sliding Centre, Cortina d’Ampezzo, Italy – February 21, 2026. Adam Edelman of Israel, Menachem Chen of Israel, Uri Zisman of Israel, Omer Katz of Israel in action during Heat 1. Photo: REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha
Italy’s state broadcaster RAI was forced to apologize to the Jewish community on Saturday after an off‑air remark advising its producers to “avoid” the Israeli crew was broadcast before coverage of the Four-Man bobsleigh event at the Winter Olympics.
The head of RAI’s sports division had already resigned earlier in the week after his error-ridden commentary at the Milano Cortina 2026 opening ceremony two weeks ago triggered a revolt among its journalists.
On Saturday, viewers heard “Let’s avoid crew number 21, which is the Israeli one” and then “no, because …” before the sound was cut off.
RAI CEO Giampaolo Rossi said the incident represented a “serious” breach of the principles of impartiality, respect and inclusion that should guide the public broadcaster.
He added that RAI had opened an internal inquiry to swiftly determine any responsibility and any potential disciplinary procedures.
In a separate statement RAI’s board of directors condemned the remark as “unacceptable.”
The board apologized to the Jewish community, the athletes involved and all viewers who felt offended.
RAI is the country’s largest media organization and operates national television, radio and digital news services.
The union representing RAI journalists, Usigrai, had said Paolo Petrecca’s opening ceremony commentary had dealt “a serious blow” to the company’s credibility.
His missteps included misidentifying venues and public figures, and making comments about national teams that were widely criticized.