BM74: Solidarity with Carinthian-Slovenian Students regarding the annual fascist march in Pliberk/Bleiburg
Each year, thousands of people gather in Bleiburg in Austria to commemorate the victims of the Bleiburg repatriations, which is used by right-extremists.
At this memorial the participants commemorate the victims killed at the end of World War II in and around Bleiburg. The number of those killed is still debated.
South-east military forces became allies to Nazi Germany who persecuted and killed hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs, Jews, Roma and political opponents of the Nazi regime. Many were murdered in the Jasenovac death camp, which is still partially contested by people attending the event.
Austria’s DÖW resistance archive centre, which specializes in documenting Nazism and neo-Nazism, has called Bleiburg “the biggest fascist meeting in Europe”.
For a long time only a few people gathered but in recent years the ceremony has drawn more than 10.000 people who still revere as these south-east military forces.
Many organisations including the organisation of Slovenian-Carinthian Students (KSŠŠD), the local students’ unions of ÖH Uni Klagenfurt and ÖH Uni Wien have already called on the local authorities to ban this annual commemoration, but with no success.
Opposition to this event is especially important for the students’ organization of the Slovenian-Carinthian Students, because they are a minority in Austria who feel unsafe.
The Austrian government claims that different laws and proclaimed religious context of the event prevents it from taking action.
We, the European Students‘ Union, condemn the development of the memorial that has turned into a right-wing extremist gathering commemorating those who are responsible for the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people and stand with Carinthian-Slovenian students against this revisionist event.
Proposed by: ÖH
Seconded by: UNEF, UDU, fzs, FEF, UNEL, CREUP, NUIS