Aftermath News: Bulgarian Parliament denounces Communist atrocities as equal to Nazi war crimes

MPs decided to declare August 23 as the day when victims of both Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes will be commemorated. But the opposition motion to teach pupils about both Nazism and Communism in history textbooks was defeated.
Sophia Echo | Sep 18, 2008
by Petar Kostadinov
Bulgarian Parliament decided to support the Prague Declaration that denounces atrocities committed during the years Eastern European countries spent under communism, recognising them equal to the Nazi ones.
The declaration was adopted in Prague on June 3 2008 and called for all parliaments in Europe to support it.
On September 18 2008, a total of 106 MPs out of the 240 in Bulgarian Parliament voted in favour of support the declaration. The motion for the vote was tabled by two of the right-wing parties in opposition - the Union of Democratic Forces and the Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria.
The vote was not entirely backed by the MPs of the three ruling parties - the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), the National Movement for Stability and Progress and the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Sixty of the 81 BSP MPs voted against the declaration and five abstained.
They argued that it was about time for the political confrontation to stop and that the 45 years Bulgaria spent under communism were one of the most calm years. BSP is the party that emerged from the Bulgarian Communist Party after the fall of communism in 1989.
In addition to supporting the document, MPs decided to declare August 23 as the day when victims of both Nazi and Communist totalitarian regimes will be commemorated. But the opposition motion to teach pupils about both Nazism and Communism in history textbooks was defeated.