site.btaUPDATED The Left! Erect Tent Camp to Protect Sofia's Soviet Army Monument

The Left! erected a tent camp to protect Sofia's Soviet Army Monument on Wednesday. Four tents and a marquee were pitched in front of the controversial landmark. The non-parliamentary coalition also put up a few pictures of similar monuments in other European countries. Maya Manolova of The Left! said they will guard the tents.

The action follows a Council of Ministers decision of August 2 to change the status of the memorial complex from public state property to private state property, which is widely seen as a first step towards going ahead with plans to remove the Stalin-era monument from its present location at the very heart of the city and keep only the elements of artistic value.

"The Right-wing's war against history on the eve of the [October 29] local elections is escalating. This is a pitiful war of those people who lack arguments and solutions to current problems, who lack a vision about the future, and who are trying to desecrate and dismantle history," Manolova said. She described the plans to remove the monument as yet another attempt by Right-wing political forces to conduct their election campaigns at the expense of the Soviet Army Monument.

"The tent camp will remain in front of the monument for as long as there is a risk that it will be dismantled," Manolova said.

Later in the day, representatives of the Vazrazhdane and BSP for Bulgaria parliamentary groups appeared in front of the monument.

"We are here to resist, yet again, the brazen powerholders' attempts to demolish the Soviet Army Monument, to try to demolish any monument in Bulgaria symbolizing various periods in Bulgarian history," Georgi Svilenski MP of BSP for Bulgaria commented to journalists. "We are here to try to tell those people to read history, to realize what these monuments stand for and what they want to demolish, because demolishing the Soviet Army Monument at this point is worse then being ignorant," he added. In his opinion, the issue is raised at this particular time "in search for voters for the [local] elections". "If the monument is pulled down indeed, that would be the worst thing: then they should end their political existence because there will be no longer anything to pull down and, accordingly, there will be no room for them in politics," the MP argued.

Ivelin Parvanov MP of Vazrazhdane explained the presence of his party's supporters by a desire to preserve Bulgaria's history and sovereignty. "Certain people's xenomania, dictated by a certain country's embassy, cannot deform the entire skyline of the capital and our entire history," he commented. "A bunch of bureaucrats in City Hall cannot decide instead of the capital's residents," Parvanov added. He said that a local referendum may be held about the monument. The MP pledged that Vazrazhdane will be on site until the local authority and the powerholders give up the dismantling idea.

Sofia City Regional Governor Vyara Todeva said in a BTA interview that a relocation of the Soviet Army Monument, which is now managed by the regional governor, requires "a long design and clearance procedure".

National Gallery Director  Iaroslava Boubnova has been approached about the possibility of transferring the sculptures and bas reliefs of the Soviet Army Monument as a permanent exhibit to the Gallery's Museum of Art from the Socialist Period. This proposal was voted by the Sofia Municipal Council on March 9.