You're reading: European official slams Ukrainian authorities’ position on May 9 events in Lviv

Brussels. May 10 (Interfax) - European Parliament member Tatjana Zdanoka representing Latvia has said she was outraged by the Ukrainian authorities' attitude toward the May 9 events in Lviv, in which WWII veterans were attacked by Ukrainian nationalists.

"What happened in Lviv cannot but cause outrage. But I cannot say such things do not happen in Latvia as well. Extremist right-wing organizations filed an application for laying a barbed-wire wreath at a monument to war veterans two years ago and attempted to organize a procession to celebrate the start of the war against the USSR on June 22 last year. However, law enforcement agencies did not stay indifferent and did all they could to prevent this," Zdanoka said in a telephone interview with Interfax from Strasbourg, where she is taking part in a European Parliament plenary session.

"It is very sad that Ukrainian national and regional government bodies did not do so. I am outraged above all by the authorities’ position and lack of some preemptive steps, as extremists can always turn up," she said.

"When some rightist political forces in Dresden only came up with an idea of a protest demonstration on an anniversary of the city’s bombing, a huge anti-fascist counter-demonstration headed by the mayor was organized," Zdanoka said.

"One can only wonder why young people did not come to the aid of the veterans. Why are anti-fascist and patriotic organizations in Lviv so weak? This is really alarming," she said.

There is quite a strong lobby in the European Parliament comprising politicians who would like to revise the history of WWII and the role of its various participants, Zdanoka said. "By the way, its activists are from the Baltic states. This group, which has seemingly a very peaceful name of Reconciliation of European History but which has quite a sinister meaning, is led by a European parliamentarian from Latvia, Sandra Kalniete," Zdanoka said.

"They were really disappointed recently. The EU executive bodies displayed a very balanced approach. We received an analytical document on events held in the European Union to judge totalitarian regimes.

Based on experts’ opinions, the European Commission declined the initiators’ idea to organize a kind of second Nuremberg Trial and condemn Communism as an evil equal to Fascism and National-Socialism," she said.

"The Ukrainian authorities and Ukrainian politicians, first of all the presidential party as well as other left-center parties, should inform their population about this position of Europe," Zdanoka said.

"Unfortunately, their young generation is poisoned by lopsided revanchist propaganda, which has been spread both in Ukraine and in my country. And it is obvious that it is still being spread, since we see such results in Lviv. A battle is raging on for the people’s minds, and the Party of Regions and other progressive parties and anti-fascist forces are losing this battle or at least have been unable to win it," she said.