A petition has been launched to stop Kanye West, also known as Ye, from headlining a music festival in Bratislava, Slovakia. The petition calls his planned appearance “an insult to historic memory” and says it glorifies wartime violence and dishonors victims of the Nazi regime.
The Rubicon festival announced it had booked Kanye West for a show in mid-July. However, over 3,500 people have signed the petition asking the Bratislava mayor to cancel his performance. The petition is supported by groups like Peace for Ukraine and Cities for Democracy.
They accuse Kanye West of openly supporting symbols and ideas linked to the darkest parts of history. The petition calls him “one of the world’s most famous antisemites” and mentions that he sold a T-shirt featuring a swastika on his website.
On May 8, the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat, Kanye released a song called Heil Hitler. The song includes a speech by Adolf Hitler from 1935. Germany banned the song because of laws against hate speech and extremist symbols. It was also removed from most music platforms but spread on Elon Musk’s social media site, X.
The petition says it is “unacceptable” for Bratislava to host Kanye West’s performance because of his harmful public views. They worry the show could attract extremist groups and lead to Nazi symbolism or violence. Slovakia criminalizes Nazi ideology, and many Slovak Jews were victims of the Holocaust during World War II.
Kanye West recently appeared briefly at a trial supporting Sean “Diddy” Combs and plans to release a full version of his album Bully soon.
