BULGARIAN PROTESTS · 2016. 3. 15. · tablishment of true democracy, it did not lead automatically...

#BULGARIANPROTESTS

14 Jan 2014 www.facebook.com/vestnikprotest Issue № 2

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►On page 4► On page 2 ► On page 10Attack on Morality 100 Days – 100 Gaffes Freedom of Press

and Bulgaria’s Democracy

It is usually the case that we Bulgarians look to the past as a reference to our present. Many hardships have literally erased the word future from the Bulgarian nation’s mind. #BulgarianFuture is almost always used in a pejorative con-text – whether it is future demographic outlook, next de-cade’s projected economic growth, you name it – future in Bulgarian means bad, negative, bleak.

Because of that, the past is always the vantage point from which we make sense of ourselves. Why not turn our gaze towards what lies ahead? But how do we know what it looks like? It’s a cliche, but to a large extent, it depends on us. Hopefully, this and a few other forthcoming posts will open a tiny thinking space in which #BulgarianFuture does not equate Dante’s vision of the Inferno.

A Distant #BulgarianFutureBorislav Gizdavkov

A Day in The Life: A Distant #BulgarianFuture

As every morning, at 6:30 am exactly, Ivan was awoken by the cheerful sound of his portable radio. Buried somewhere under the pile of stuff on his nightstand, it is tuned to the news station and squeaks like a walkie-talkie. The radio broadcast provides the perfect background to the morning bustle that goes on under his flat’s window. Overlooking a quiet park and a busy boulevard, Ivan’s apartment in down-town Sofia is a microcosm that captures the vibe of the Bul-garian capital. The city of two million people is alive as nev-er before. After the Dancing Revolution, Sofia was quickly transformed from a commie-block jungle into a modern urban centre that is now on a par with Europe’s capitals in terms of living standards. It is the city of the young where opportunities abound.While getting up slowly, Ivan could make out that later to-day the city of Sofia will be hosting a conference on the EU’s role in the world. “Delegations from all corners of the Union are already in the city”, boasts the radio presenter, “and ev-ery one of them is praising Sofia for its cleanliness”. Ivan is hardly interested in politics, and unmoved by the sweet talk, goes on for a shower before leaving for work.Ivan belongs to the new generation of Bulgarians, born and raised in the 2000s. He, as many of his peers, has had a taste of the last years of the transition period to democracy that Bulgaria was bogged down into for 30 years after 1989. He often listens to older people speaking about the tumultuous events of that period and the economic hardships that his parents have gone through, but has nonetheless remained reluctant to explore the peculiarities of those experiences. Nor does his job require him to do so – Ivan is managing a small IT company that does business internationally and represents the high-tech sector that pulled Bulgaria out of the abyss some time ago.

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Photo: Justine Toms

--“Insert future here.”

ACCENT

The dry facts that we have all heard: during a Sofia–Varna flight, Siderov

entered into a quarrel with French diplo-mat Stéphanie Dumortier. When he re-alized that she was a foreign diplomat, he began to insult her, calling her a “terror-ist” and “colonizer”. Then at the airport he physically attacked two men, broke a phone belonging to one of them, and hit a police officer in the face with a fist.At the subsequent rally of his party in Varna, Siderov called all the journal-ists who covered the event “hyenas” and “vultures”, and ended with a three-fold repetition of the mantra: “You be damned!”. No comment.In Sofia, at a rally in front of the court-house, he called the people protesting against him “cockroaches” and “moths”. No comment.Here is the full text of the official an-nouncement of the French Embassy; after that, the only one to comment should be the Prosecution. On Janu-ary 8, Attorney General Sotir Tsatsarov ruled that there are sufficient grounds for indictment and requested Siderov’s immunity to be lifted. The President of the National Assembly, Mihail Mikov, in turn, gave him two weeks for a possible “catharsis”. We’re waiting. There are no foundations of democracy if such behav-iour is tolerated again and gets bypassed with helpful silence yet another time, in an attempt to preserve power at all costs.

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Attack on Moralityby Bulgarian right-wing nationalist party (ATAKA)

Translation by Petko Bossakov

A French diplomat was insulted and threatened by a Bulgarian citizen, ap-parently intoxicated, during the even-ing flight of Bulgaria Air from Sofia to Varna, on January 6. The aforemen-tioned Bulgarian citizen reproached her in terms of nationality, and, citing his status as a Member of Parliament, requested the diplomat’s documents for verification, obviously making no distinction between legislative and executive functions. The Embassy of the French Republic expects an apol-ogy from that person, whose repre-hensible behaviour is not worthy of his capacity as an MP, and not even worthy of any self-respecting person. The Embassy of the French Republic and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs are currently investigating the incident in order to take appropriate measures against this unacceptable behaviour. We remind that under the Vienna Convention of 18 April 1961, the Bulgarian authorities are obliged to take the necessary measures to pre-vent offences against any members of diplomatic corps, and against their freedom and dignity.”

(Later, the Embassy removed the two publications in Bulgarian and French from their website, and posted a new, shortened version. The Ambassador ex-plained to the Bulgarian National Televi-sion that the reason was that some of the allegations were obvious, but unfortu-nately not proven at the time.)

In september, ATAKA MPs were in-volved in another public exposure at a Brussels restaurant. They scandalized the staff and the rest of the customers by uncivilized conduct and on top of it re-fused to pay the bill.The aim of ATAKA’s visit to Brussels was to deliver a letter of protest against an EPP member – Doris Pak – for call-ing ATAKA “a racist and anti-European party”. A meeting with ATAKA, how-ever, was refused by any members of the ENP. Eventually the letter was delivered to the post box of Mr. Pak by Mr. Desis-lav Chukolov, a MP from ATAKA.Mr. Chukolov became a center of atten-tion in his own right after this notori-ous visit. Leaving the Parliament on the 4th of October he showed the finger to anti-government protesters. A series of photographs clearly document him and another MP entering into a govern-ment vehicle followed seconds later by Mr. Chukolov’s obscene gesture through the window of the backseat of the same car. This sparked a storm in social me-dia with tweets like “Chukolov greets the sovereign”. Mr. Chukolov, who is the deputy chairman of Ataka, refused any comment.Previously, during the early days of the protests, Siderov was photographed entering parliament wearing a gun in a gun holster. This was following a day of confrontations with journalists who were raising questions to him regarding the scandalous appointment of Delyan Peevski as the head of the national secu-rity agency, the event that subsequently sparked the protests.Siderov and Chukulov’s recent behavior is characteristic of ATAKA’s nihilistic attitude and absolute lack of morality. On many previous occasions, members of the same party have been involved in scandals and disputes that captured the public’s attention. Nevertheless, ATAKA’s current strategic position in government as a key party that holds the coalition together give this latest gaffe greater significance.ATAKA’s behaviour, along with the at-titude of its leader, capture the state of the Bulgarian politics at the moment. Si-derov and Chukolov are the incarnation of the phoney political system in Bulgar-ia. Unfortunately, at a time when politics is built around the model of criminal oligarchy, such behavior is all the more natural. The members of ATAKA did not just act on their behalf. They rep-resented every Bulgarian at Brussels. Is that the moral compass you would have followed?

Photo: Vassil Garnizov

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ACCENT


It was tough getting where he is now. Building a decent live-lihood in Bulgaria at the turn of the millennium required one to endure a Sisyphus struggle and to tacitly accept the political status quo. More than two decades of stalled re-forms, reigning corruption, and incompetent governance by the Socialist Party produced that reality and guaran-teed Bulgaria’s unenviable reputation of being “the poorest country in the EU” for quite a while.By European standards, Bulgaria was a failing state. It is not the case that it lacked central government – that was in place. Alas, only in name. A government is not legitimate when a fraudulent camarilla is bent on protecting the inter-ests of a few shady moguls. Such a government, made up of former secret service agents, is by definition unable to serve its people – a fact proven by the disastrous social experiment of communism. Nevertheless, whether we can comprehend the absurdity of it or not, that is exactly how Bulgaria looked like in the beginning of the 21st century.Defying all expectations, however, the Bulgarians changed all that, by themselves.Starting in the mid-2010s, the infamously passive and docile Bulgarian nation toppled the morally bankrupt government led by the Socialist Party. Peaceful protests and demands for real democracy suddenly became the driving forces behind Bulgaria’s own Velvet Revolution. That revolution became possible and inevitable when the people got tired of living in a state that seemed to hate its citizens. It was not the ideas that made this a revolution – democracy is hardly a novel concept. The true revolution happened in people’s minds. That is what counts most.The two indispensable ingredients for change – the ideas of freedom and new beginning – finally ripened in the minds of the people during that period. Ivan, then in his teens, saw the emergence of a new Bulgaria – one that is founded on the principles of democracy, liberty, and meritocracy.That fundamental change stood in stark contrast to his par-ents’ miserable life that both celebrated Bulgaria’s liberation from communism in 1989 and suffered the subsequent peri-od of painfully long looting of the state’s wealth by mafia fig-ures that somehow happened to govern the country as well. It took time, but the Bulgarians came to realise that libera-tion and liberty are not the same. While liberation from the cancer of communism provided the conditions for the es-tablishment of true democracy, it did not lead automatically to it. The Bulgarian nation took a good quarter of a century to comprehend that true freedom resides and is achievable through their active participation in public affairs and civil control of government.As that happened, Bulgaria made spectacular economic progress and after a 10-year period of latency, emerged as a successful role model for new members of the EU such as Ukraine and Serbia. Bulgaria’s judiciary, long-branded as ineffective and serving the interests of the local criminal cliques, finally got off the ground by convicting corrupt gov-

ernment officials and their affiliates from the underground world. Today, Ivan is reaping the benefits of these developments. His employer was one of many high technology firms that chose to invest in Bulgaria in the 2020s. The state’s increased credit rating and massive inflow of foreign direct investment made it an attractive place to work and live. Ivan appreciates that. It is only natural that he does so – juxtaposed to the bleak canvas of his childhood days of old marked by memo-ries of a state that had failed its citizens, his life today ap-pears as one that is actually worth living.

* * *On his way to work, Ivan stopped at the petrol station to get his usual morning paper. While throwing it onto the pas-senger seat, he glanced at the front page story which bragged that for the first time, Bulgaria has made it to the “list of top 20 least corrupt countries in the world”. This develop-ment, unimaginable 30 years ago, is now taken for granted by most Bulgarians. However, it took the nation long years of struggle, sudden enlightenment, and protracted yet per-sistent peaceful resistance to bring this new Bulgaria to life.In a way, the slow transition from a nepotistic model of bogus democracy to a state governed by the rule law was a struggle of Bulgarians against themselves. Nonetheless, fighting against the odds and showing that the desire for freedom and democracy is stronger than political authority built over a network of impudence and deceit, the Bulgarian nation reinvented itself.Today, Ivan and the generation that he represents are the first to live in a Bulgaria that is yet again brand new. That has happened on several other occasions in the history of that long-suffering nation. After 1878, 1944 and indeed after 1989, the schema of liberation-high hopes-disappointment was the norm. Ivan and Bulgaria of the future know better than most that this predicament was not their fate...

...Do we?

Photo: Vassil Garnizov

A Distant #BulgarianFutureBorislav Gizdavkov

E from page 1...


ACCENT

In the beginning of the protests (110 days ago) against the current Coalition Government headed by Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski, protest-

ers were accused of not giving the government the chance to prove their worth in its first 100 days. They were accused of standing in the way of the govern-ment and the fulfillment of its pre-electoral promises and programmes.

Yet, those 100 days are now over and out. There is still no reason of showing them support by giving them the benefit of the doubt. On the other hand, the reasons for asking for this government’s resignation are as numerous, as they days it has been in power. And rather than decreasing, the number of mistakes is skyrocketing: atrocious appointments, ridiculous laws are being drafted, concealing the truth and de-ceiving the most vulnerable citizens with promises of higher benefits, to name but a few...

The 100th day of the government – marked on September 6th – was also the 128 anniversary of Bulgaria’s Unification, as we again witnessed a direct government attempt at separating and juxtaposing the nation. Alas, we are wide awake and watchful.

The sheer quantity of the spectacular mistakes committed by the government, and what is worse, the apparent thought that no one will notice and that citizens will remain passive, is absolutely un-forgivable. The list below contains a selection of the graves mistakes unworthy of any government seek-ing legitimacy and seeking to represent the people’s voice, rather than representing the voice of a small clique of privileged individuals. To simplify matters for our foreign audience, here is this week’s trending list of the Top 10 Oresharski Cabinet gaffes:

1) The scandalous appointment of Delyan Peevski as head of DANS (The Bulgarian National Security Agen-cy) after the law was tailored to the given needs, leading tens of thousands to the streets. Peevski was not even removed from the post – he decided to step down on his own accord (We remind our readers that Delyan Peevski is a 33-year old media mogul, with direct connections to circles of organized crime and former Secret Service spheres. Translator’s note)

2) The actualization of Budget 2013 was passed, again without the necessary debate and consensus building. A large loan was agreed to be taken out by the government (around 6 million leva), as an at-tempt to revive the small and mid-sized businesses.

Once again, those in power attempted to manipulate the most vulnerable strata in society by pledging to spend around 40 million leva on benefits and health-care. What remained unsaid is why the budget al-location did not account for 40% of the loan taken out – the budget was not balanced and risks raising the deficit level of Bulgaria in times of economic hardship. Even after the veto enforced by President Rossen Plevneliev, the actualization passed through parliament anyway without any changes.

3) The announcement of Kalin Tiholov (he is connect-ed to “Duningeit” – a scandal, which revolves around the building of a luxurious hotel on the Bulgarian southern-Black Sea coast, leading to a penal proce-dure lead against Bulgaria by the European Commis-sion; he is also the author of the infrastructural plan for another coastal town – Tsarevo and was involved in the planning of building schemes in the area of Strandja) as Minister of Investment Planning. His subsequent removal was again a consequence of citi-zen action. If the appointment passes, very good – if not, on to the next one!

4) The first thing that the newcomers in government set themselves to doing was trying to overrule the ban on smoking in closed public spaces using ficti-tious statistics about how removing the ban will in effect serve as the life-support mechanism that Bul-garian tourism needs. This, in effect, was yet another attempt to segregate and separate the Bulgarian people. Unsuccessful.

5) Energy Dependency on Russia seems a vital prior-ity:

a. They also put the resurgence of the nuclear power plant in Belene development plans on the agenda with the motive that it will yield billions in profits. We actually lose out if the power plant is built. Moreover, the other nuclear power plant in Kozlodui, has recorded a 5.8 million leva (4 mil-lion dollars) for the first half of 2013, when for the same period in 2012 it registered a 90 million leva (60 million dollars) profit. In other words, it is unsustainable to build a second power plant in Bulgaria.b. The “Yuzhen Potok” (trans. Southern Path – this is a pipe-line, which Russia is attempting to build through Bulgarian territory) continues to raise serious suspicion. The government is raising the

eco-barrier for this project. The entry point of it would be one of the few remaining virgin beaches – Pasha Dere. The gas pipeline is incredibly detre-mental for Bulgaria and its economy. The planned transitional taxes, which Russia ought to pay Bul-garia in the process of the gas exploitation, are 2.5 times smaller than their market value, as held in other Eastern and Central European countries.

6) After appearing on a morning talk show on BTV, Prime Minister Oresharski refused to answer the question posed by TV hosts Anna Tsolova and Viktor Nikolaev: “Who nominated Delyan Peevski for the position?”. Oresharski only answered that he found it “rude” such questions were asked. Both hosts were subsequently fired from the TV station.

7) The existence of this Cabinet is only a reality due to the involvement of Ataka in the coalition. The Cabinet is dependent on Volen Siderov’s vote, known for his aggressive behaviour, far from acceptable for an MP. He is also known to support racism and hate speech, yet is in power with the Movement of Rights and Freedoms – the ’arch-nemesis’ of Ataka, as declared by Siderov. Ataka’s pre-election campaign was based on hate-speech against Muslim and their Rights and Freedoms Movement. The fact that both parties are in a coalition, gladly so, with the Socialists, means that there are other things, besides politics going on within those parties, their platforms and ideologies.

8) Another atrocious appointment was the choice went to Ivan Ivanov as Deputy Interior Minister. He is connected to the criminal organization SIK (involved in narco-trafficking, theft, racketeering, prostitution, and black-mail). This appointment also did not hold and Ivanov held the post for no more than a few hours.

9) The mind-boggling deal with the pension fund “Doverie” (trans. “Trust”) – a deal involving the money of more than 1 million Bulgarians. The com-pany was initially sold to an offshore account with an unclear ownership. With brief commentary provided by the Cabinet, the Financial Advisory Committee is still considering this deal.

10) The unprecedented attitude of the government and police towards the protesters:

a. Maya Manolova (deputy-Chair of Parliament) announced that “the protests were a novel form of a temporary occupation”.b. Another MP called the protesters “internet idi-ots”.c. After a tragic car accident, protesters were ac-cused of blocking the street causing the ambu-lance to arrive late. This horrifying statement was immediately rejected by the head of Emergency Service, Dr. Georgi Gelev.d. The way in which the Interior Ministry counted the protesters each night – in those days when we marched down Tsarigratsko Road and gathered 30,000 – their recorded showed no more than 3,000.e. The way Oresharski refuses to communicate with protesters and foster a dialogue.

100 Days – 100 GaffesTranslation by Nikolay Nikolov (15th of September, 2013)

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HAVE SOME SHAME, HAVE SOME SHAME!

Those were the words of Delyan Peevski after an outburst towards former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsveta-nov. The remark was made in relation to the scandal regarding phone-tapping and survaillance pursued by GERB while in office. Peevski became the head of the national security agency, DANS, a month later.


ACCENTAPPOINTMENTS

1. The scandalous appointment of Delyan Peevski as head of DANS (The Bulgarian National Security Agen-cy) after the law was tailored to the given needs, leading tens of thousands to the streets. Peevski was not even removed from the post – he decided to step down on his own accord (We remind our readers that Delyan Peevski is a 33-year old media mogul, with di-rect connections to circles of organized crime and for-mer Secret Service spheres. Translator’s note.)

2. The Bulgarian Consulate representative in Frank-furt, Ivan Yordanov, was chosen as deputy justice minister, without his knowledge.

3. The announcement of Kalin Tiholov (he is connect-ed to “Duningeit” – a scandal, which revolves around the building of a luxurious hotel on the Bulgarian southern-Black Sea coast, leading to a penal proce-dure lead against Bulgaria by the European Commis-sion; he is also the author of the infrastructural plan for another coastal town – Tsarevo and was involved in the planning of building schemes in the area of Strandja) as Minister of Investment Planning. His subsequent removal was again a consequence of citi-zen action. If the appointment passes, very good – if not, on to the next one!

4. And the next one is Ivan Danov, who improp-erly received benefit payments as “unemployed” in France. Ivan Danov got tangled in excuses regarding this case, initially explaining he had not made use of those funds, that they were pension funds, that he had the right documentation, as granted by the French Labour Service – all ridiculous and unprov-able explanations.

5. The Prime Minister did not even manage to learn the names of some of the ministers, got them mixed up, including the above-mentioned Danov, whom he called Dimov.

6. As Deputy Interior Minister, the choice went to Ivan Ivanov, who is connected to the criminal organization SIK (involved in narco-trafficking, theft, racketeering, prostitution, and black-mail). This appointment also did not hold and Ivanov held the post for no more than a few hours.

7. After Ivanov, who had close ties with SIK, another closely-knit relationship with another major criminal group – VIS, was chosen as District Governor of So-fia. This is the Rights and Freedoms Movement (the Party claiming to reperesent the Turkish and Roma ethnic minorities in Bulgaria) candidate Emil Ivanov – whose criminal file is filled with cases of battery, deal-making and illegal auction licensing.

8. The appointment of Petko Arnaudov as Head of the National Forestry in Tsarevo is the next case. Former Mayor of the town, he became famous with his at-tempt to liquidate the National Park Strandja in order to legalize the building of a villa-zone “Zlatna Perla”.

9. The removal of Martin Ivanov, the head of the National Archives Agency. He himself learned about it from the media. Martin Ivanov was swapped by the former DANS employee Ivan Komitski, who was a Secret Service official from the Third Independent Department.

10. The appointment of Nikolay Popov as Deputy Director of the “Borders” Agency. He has had his ac-cess to secret documents revoked due to informal ties with drug smugglers.

11. As Youth and Sports Minister, the choice went to Prof. Mariana Georgieva – linguist and syntax profes-sor at the Bulgarian Institute for Language. She had been the parliamentary liaison for the Head of the Rights and Freedoms Movement – Liutvi Mestan. Her competencies for the job are literally non-existent.

12. The appointment of Volen Siderov (the controver-sial leader of the pseudo-nationalist and pseudo-pa-triotic and ultra-right wing party Ataka) as the Ethics Committee Director. No comment.

13. Boyan Chukov, close to Aleksey Petrov (who is re-garded as being among the top mafia individuals and has been tried unsuccessfully over the past 4 years), became head of Security at the Ministry Council. This was followed by a very stern and critical response by the President Rossen Plevneliev – Chukov is connect-ed to the Secret Service; his involvement in politics is more than disturbing.

14. The choice of Ivan Velikov as District Governor of Varna (charged but not convicted).

15. The appointment of Michail Michailov as District Governor of Pernik – he was the former Deputy May-or of construction, fired by Mayor Rositsa Ianakieva because of misuse of public fund used for help fol-lowing the earthquakes in 2012.

16. The appointment of Beihan Duran as District Governor or Smolian – convicted for assault using a knife.

17. The appointment of Unal Tasim as the fifth Dep-uty Energy and Economy Minister. In the last days of parliament in 2009, he was charged with corruption.

18. The appointment of Georgi Dimitrov as Perma-nent Interior Ministry Secretary – he is also a former Secret Service member, with the code name “ANTON”, and later also in the First Central Committee – code-name “BOIL”.

19. Biurchan Abazov is once again Deputy Commerce Minister. In 2004, when he first assumed the posi-tion, he sold physical and juridical entities 974 acres in the Stranja park at around 75-100 Euros per acre.

20. The appointment of Eva Zhecheva az Head of the Government Agency for the Protection of Children in the place of Kalin Kamenov. She held the post until 2002, when she was forced to resign because of fi-nancial deals she had made.

21. The return of Dr. Margarita Dzhurelova as Direc-tor at St. Ivan Rilski Children’s Home. She had been penalized several times for breach of conduct and for crimes against children, which had happened while she was in charge. After the last incident in 2011, she was forced into retirement. As she heads the Home today, she is 68 years old and apparently lacking any sense of moral fibre.

22. The appointment of Vania Stefanova as Deputy-Head of DANS – she is a prosecutor, who was given the task of investigating frauds with EU funds and the case of the fake bulletins from the last election – the investigation led to nowhere.

23. The new Head of the Agency for Road Infra-structure, Stefan Chaikov, who is still on the Board of Directors and CEO of several holdings (7 firms for construction and road repair) in firms specializing in road repair; this is in direct contradiction with the law aimed at overcoming and surpassing any form of conflict of interests.

24. The appointment of Georgi Hristozov as member of the Bulgarian Energy Holding Council – he has been convicted with revoked access to classified in-formation.

25. The appointment of Mukadec Nalbant as Deputy Education and Science Minister. He claimed some time ago that Vassil Levski (one of the most beloved Bulgarian fighters for liberation against the Ottoman Empire).

26. The appointment of Daniela Bobeva as Vice-Prime Minister in the Oresharski Cabinet. Mrs. Bobeva has been associated with Vassil Bojkov-The Skull (a known mafia boss) as member of the Council of Directors of his firm “Motostroy” Ltd.

27. The appointment of Branimir Botev as head of the Tourism Agency. He is in a conflict of interests and is involved in several suspicious activities via his factory in the village of Bania, where he is in charge of the land, which has been returned to former king Simeon Sakskoburggotski.

28. Svetoslav Lazarov is Chief Secretary of the Interior Ministry. He is the son-in-law of former Interior Min-ister Rumen Petkov’s deputy- Kamen Petkov – who owns a security agency, leading to a direct conflict of interests.


Photo: Julian Sobadzhiev

“The disgusting ones” --Left to right: Delyan Peevski, Sotir Tsatsarov, Sergey Stanishev, Lyutvi Mestan, Volen Siderov


ACCENT

29. The changes within the Agency for governmental financial inspection, connected to check and find-ings revolving the potential construction of a nuclear power plant in Belene and other energy resource facilities.

30. Chavdar Georgiev was elected Deputy Environ-ment and Waters Minister. Due to the development plant near Tsarevo, there is a penal procedure upheld against Bulgaria at the moment.

31. Yordan Gramov was elected Deputy Interior Min-ister – a prosecutor, who had overseen many checks of that same Ministry.

32. Ivan Aiolov became Deputy Energy Minister. He is also the head of an energy firm owned by Bogomil Manchev, who is the main proponent for the devel-opment of the project in Belene.

33. Rumiana Todorova, the sibling of the member of the European Parliament – Iliana Iotova, has been placed as head of the National Healthcare budgeting office; in an interview, she said that it was her role that influenced her sister’s position.

34. The new head of DANS (the National Security Agency), Vladimir Pisanchev, is involved in the “Gal-lery” legal case and subsequently left the agency – he has now come back on a white horse.

35. The management of “Information Services”, which counts the bulletins after elections, has under-gone a complete overhaul. Among the new appoin-tees is the Former Interior Minster Rumen Petkov.

36. Mario Primdjanov is elected for a second time as head of the “National Sport Center”, which governs the most important sports facilities, excluding one sports hall in Sofia – “Universiada”, which was sold to companies connected to Delyan Peevski, during Primdjanov’s last term.

37. With pre-set changes in the national lottery legal set-up opened up new opportunities for changes in the governing body and the mandate of the last di-rector was immediately terminated.

38. The appointment of Tsvetlin Yovchev as Interior Minister. When he announced he would resign and leave his post as the President’s Chief of Staff, the media cited the following announcement: “I have personal projects, which I cannot intertwine with my work for the President. They are still in their early stages and I would not like to share any further in-formation. I can only say, that they are not related to politics”. If the appointment of Interior Minister is not political, then what is?

39. The removal of the director of the National Stadi-um “Vassil Levski” Anton Popov after a 29 year term. This is one among many abrupt removals which lack motive and rationale. Several days prior to his remov-al, at Roger Waters’ “The Wall” concert held at the Sta-dium, a large sign reading RESIGNATION appeared on the stage. Roger Waters extended his support for the protesters and spoke against the governmental ter-rorism, which began on September 9th, 1945. Surely, this is no coincidence.

GOVERNMENTAL “IDEAS”

40. The first thing that the newcomers in govern-ment set themselves to doing was trying to overrule the ban on smoking in closed public spaces using fic-titious statistics about how removing the ban will in effect serve as the life-support mechanism that Bul-garian tourism needs. This, in effect, was yet another attempt to segregate and separate the Bulgarian people. Unsuccessful.

41. They also put the resurgence of the nuclear power plant in Belene development plans on the agenda with the motive that it will yield billions in profits. We actually lose out if the power plant is built. More-over, the other nuclear power plant in Kozlodui, has recorded a 5.8 million leva (4 million dollars) for the first half of 2013, when for the same period in 2012 it registered a 90 million leva (60 million dollars) profit. In other words, it is unsustainable to build a second power plant in Bulgaria.

42. The Oresharski Cabinet created the Ministry of In-vestment Development, a consequence of the split-ting up of the Ministry for Regional Development and Public Works. We all remain unsure as to what the new Ministry’s mandate actually is and how its existence is legitimated.

43. The conjoining of GDBOP (The Chief Directorate for the Fight against Organized Crime) and DANS, and the subsequent changes in the legal framework of DANS, with which a far-too dominant structure of force is being created, is a process which was quickly passed through, without the necessary dialogue and legitimation process ever occurring.

44. The actualization of Budget 2013 was passed, again without the necessary debate and consensus building. A large loan was agreed to be taken out by the government (around 6 million leva), as an at-tempt to revive the small and mid-sized businesses. Once again, those in power attempted to manipulate the most vulnerable strata in society by pledging to spend around 40 million leva on benefits and health-care. What remained unsaid is why the budget al-location did not account for 40% of the loan taken out – the budget was not balanced and risks raising the deficit level of Bulgaria in times of economic hardship. Even after the veto enforced by President Rossen Plevneliev, the actualization passed through parliament anyway without any changes.

45. Having just entered their new jobs within the Ministry of Education and Science, ’experts’ decided to drop Bulgarian literary classics such as ’Tiutiun’ [Tobacco] by Dimitar Dimov, and ’Maice Si’ [You, The Mother] by Hristo Botev. After increasing anger by citizens, Minister Klisarova declared she had no knowledge of this and the literary works were re-tained in the syllabus.

46. The proposition that the large supermarket chains ought not work on weekends, as a means of increasing the profit made by smaller neighbour-hood shops. Again, the effect of this will immediately disadvantage those with a lower income. Once again it turned out that the authors of this proposal had not foreseen these consequence and it was subsequently withdrawn.

47. The attempts made by Michail Michov (the Parlia-ment Chair) to close NCIOM (The National Centre for the Study of Public Opinion) under the pretext that there is no need for it. It seems that data is only re-quired from supportive (of the government and the Socialist Party) agencies.

48. The decrease by 5% of the cost of electricity bills. The main issue at hand is that this reduction is not made by optimizations in the production of electric-ity – it is made by an increase in the national debt.

49. The promises regarding increasing benefit pay-ments – sounds promising, if there were any money in the budget to be allocated for such vast spendings.

50. The blocking of all online gambling sites – with-out the proper procedural registration – is just an-other pretext for the creation of a monopoly for the companies owned by the above-mentioned Vassil Bozhkov-Cherepa.

51. The mind-boggling deal with the pension fund “Doverie” (trans. “Trust”) – a deal involving the money of more than 1 million Bulgarians. The com-pany was initially sold to an offshore account with an unclear ownership. With brief commentary provided by the Cabinet, the Financial Advisory Committee is still considering this deal.

52. The case with the privatisation of the Bulgarian National Bank printing-house. The stated facts do not favour privatisation, but the involvement of this printing-house in a joint venture. The bad thing is that this decision is once again involved with a lack of transparency. So far, there are no answers to the increasing amount of questions: Will the publishing-house company continue to function, or will it be entirely transferred to a new formation? Which of the companies will provide the services required by the Bulgarian National Bank? The commentary provided by Vice Prime-Minister Daniela Bobeva was: “In Sep-tember, the BNB Director, Ivan Iskrov, will explain the whole situation. Nonetheless, this concerns classified information, so do not expect any publicity on this issue”. This does not fall in line with the basic demo-cratic necessity of full transparency and institutional legitimacy.

53. The unaccounted for and suspicious reform within the security sector, through which the Interior Minister becomes in charge of the Ministry, DANS, and the newly created Governmental Agency “Tech-nical Operations”.


Photo: Fani Mihailova

Key government figures booed during the opening of the new academic year at the University of Na-tional and World Economy.Left to right: Peter Chobanov, Minister of Finance; Stati Statev, University Rector (previously Commu-nist Secret Service agent) and Plamen Oresharski, Prime Minister.


ACCENT54. The “Yuzhen Potok” (trans. Southern Path – this is a pipe-line, which Russia is attempting to build through Bulgarian territory) continues to raise seri-ous suspicion. The government is raising the eco-barrier for this project. The entry point of it would be one of the few remaining virgin beaches – Pasha Dere. The gas pipeline is incredibly detremental for Bulgaria and its economy. The planned transitional taxes, which Russia ought to pay Bulgaria in the process of the gas exploitation, are 2.5 times smaller than their market value, as held in other Eastern and Central European countries.

55. The decreasing in the funding provided by the Eu-ropean Union after the failed talks with the current government. The highway “Hemus” and the railway line Sofia-Varna remain unfinanced and unfinished.

56. The institutional silence about the gradual pollu-tion of the Black Sea. Even though this was discov-ered as early as August 26th, one week was not suf-ficient for samples to be taken and results analyzed. Only on September 1st was there an attempt at ex-tracting palm oil samples.

57. In order to justify, to a certain degree, the large loan taken for the budget, Prime Minister Oresharski announced that the amount of the unreturned VAT for the first half of 2013 will be 315 million leva. Ei-ther the VAT had doubled in a couple of days, or these are fictitious numbers being thrown around in the public sphere. A few days earlier, Finance Minister Petur Chobanov declared the same figure as 315 mil-lion leva.

58. The government of Plamen Oresharski took power with a small budget deficit. After the second term in office, the deficit is already at minus 168,2 million leva. The fiscal reserve decreased, as of the end of July, by 150 million leva compared to the last month. The income into the reserve at the end of July were 16 606,9 million leva. In other words, the size of the deficit is clearly due to large overspending and not enough funds.

59. Before the elections, the socialists continuously claimed they would open up 250,000 new jobs. To-day, having surpassed the 100 day mark, there are no statistics that even one new workplace has been created by the government. The claim still remains in the pre-election “priorities”.

60. It is a public secret that there is an ongoing trial against Bulgaria for its failed TV digitalization at-tempt. We will be the ones paying for this. After an aggressive 2-month ad campaign, the process was delayed due to an incapacity to install all the decod-ers.

61. Oresharski admitted in an interview that he has not achieved anything in his first 100 days in his fight with economic monopolies.

PROVOCATIONS, RIGHTS VIOLATIONS, AND LIES

62. The provocation with the “white bus” (a bus was used to evacuate MPs from Parliament in the night of the protests. The bus was surrounded by protest-ers and its windows were shattered from the inside – by the MPs themselves. The protesters were sub-sequently accused of vandalism and violence) on July 23, the 40th day of the protests. Police brutality ex-tended to people peacefully holding their hands up in a sign of passivity. No one has taken responsibility

for the dozen casualties that night.

63. The current blockade around Parliament. In ef-fect, the center of Sofia is fully barricaded. This violates the right of every citizen to move freely. By law, the barricades can be no further than 20 meters from the building at hand, and the perimetre can be extended only after a one-off permission from the Municipality in Sofia. There is no such permission.

64. The police cordon preventing the protests from circling the Parliament, even during the month of August, when most of the protesters were on vaca-tion.

65. The distasteful and unpleasant, in which citizens were forced against each other during the August 16th special Parliamentary meeting on overruling the Presidential veto. Bulgarians brought to Sofia with buses from remote areas stood behind the bar-ricades to “protect” the government. Against them were other citizens, fighting for the restoration of normalcy, prosperity, and democracy. Who do you think the real representatives of the Bulgarian people are?

66. Tsvetlin Yovchev’s meeting with protesters – al-legedly open to all, yet in fact including a list with all atendants.

67. After the car crash involving a taxi on Tsarigrasko Road, in which a young lady and a child passed away and several others were injured, the government came out with a statement blaming the protests for the late ambulance response. Meanwhile, this hor-rifying statement was immediately rejected by the head of Emergency Service, Dr. Georgi Gelev.

68. Maya Manolova (deputy-Chair of Parliament) announced that “the protests were a novel form of a temporary occupation”.

69. Hristo Monov’s announcement that the protest-ers were “internet idiots”.

70. The way in which the Interior Ministry counted the protesters each night – in those days when we marched down Tsarigratsko Road and gathered 30,000 – their recorded showed no more than 3,000.

71. Venelin Radkov’s removal from his post as Direc-tor of the National Forestry “Kosti” after 14 years. The official reason for his dismissal was “the incomple-tion of the financial plan for the first half of 2013”.

72. The massive clean-out in the Ministry of the Economy – all Directors of Regional Structures were fired, without prior notices or explanations.

73. The buses coming from the Southwestern city Blagoevgrad wishing to join the protests in Sofia were turned back by the police.

74. The leader of Ataka Volen Siderov walks around armed amidst Sofia’s center and in Parliament, abuses journalists and police-officers, threatens with arrests.

75. The process of staged debates regarding the changes to be made in the Electoral Code Law in Maya Manolova’s Committee.

76. The Interior Ministry officially admits that police officers have no right to refuse to identify and legiti-mate themselves upon questioning from citizens.

77. In a response to a question posed on BTV (a national television program) “Who put Peevski forward?”, Oresharski answered: “You want me to tell a lie”. On the other hand, Maya Manolova, in an interview with TV host Georgi Koritarov firmly de-clined to comment on the Peevski case, saying that she thought it had been discussed thoroughly, and criticised the host for living in the past and for asking irrelevant questions.

78. The photos, which the Interior Ministry claimed it had of the protesters building barricades on July 23rd, and the calls that all involved should come in for questioning.

INTERNAL COMMUNICATION79. In our society, the most die-hard supporters of the Oresharski Cabinet are rapper Misho Shamara (Misho “The Slap”) and Bisser Milanov, a.k.a. The Stain. In 2012, a case was being held against Misho Shamara for profanity with the Bulgarian flag, while Bisser Milanov has an even larger criminal back-ground – theft, hooliganism, escape from prison, etc.


Photo: Justine Tomes


ACCENT80. The Prime Minister communicates primarily through press releases. Rarely does he give live state-ments to the media. As a whole, he seems to prefer hiding behind his PR team.

81. “If the government resigns, the power can be usurped by even greedier oligarchs” – a statement made by Ianaki Stoilov (Socialist MP), in which he compares the levels of greed between the govern-ment and levels of organized crime.

82. The silent refusal of Plamen Oresharski to step up to a debate on national television after an invitation by protesters.

83. Eva Zheleva came out with a statement, as head of the State Agency for Child Protection, with which she pleaded to parents to “carefully assess whether it is suitable for their children to accompany them to the protests, as there is a risk of escalation in such cases of mass turnouts”.

84. The speech made by Finance Minister Petur Cho-banov that the government does not provoke the protesters and is not aware of why there are protests in the first place.

8. Minister Vigenin’s announcement that “with pro-testers, we shall find no common ground, as long as they wish for our resignation and for new elections”. The same individual accused the BTV for using archi-val footage in order to make the protest look larger than in is; he was later proven wrong by competent bodies within the media.

86. After Oresharski’s interview in the morning show at BTV, hosts Anna Tsolova and Viktor Nikolaev were immediately fired for asking provocative questions.

87. Plamen Oresharski: “I have no plan”. No comment.

88. ’Spontaneous’ counter-protests (people protest-ing in favour of the government) carry identical banners and posters, which they clearly wrote, yet cannot clearly read.

89. Michail Michov’s announcement as to what the media ought to be covering – yet another sly attempt at interfering with the basic freedom of speech.

INTERNATIONAL ЕMBARRASSMENTS

90. The European Commissioner for Regional De-velopment, Johannes Hahn, demanded an apology from our Transport Minister, Danail Papazov, after he claimed that his Deputy, Petur Kirov, was put forward by Mr. Kahn.

91. The Cabinet’s reaction after the announcement made by the French and German Ambassadors, who called on the government to listen to the protesters’ demands. Instead, the government seemingly got offended and demanded no further foreign inter-vention in matters of domestic politics. Meanwhile, Tatiana Burudzhieva wanted the two Ambassadors removed.

92. Vigenin forbade the Bulgarian Ambassadors to use social media.

93. In her visit in Bulgaria, European Commissioner Viviane Redding met with President Rossen Plevne-liev but did not meet with Prime Minister Oresharski, showing no support for his Cabinet.

94. With the decision of the Foreign Affairs Minister – Vigenin, the French Ambassador Phillip Otie is the first ambassador, who did not receive the traditional medal for all members of the mandate – “Stara Planina” for his service to Bulgaria. Those granted it are now seemingly reduced to those in favour of the government in power.

95. Diplomatic relations of Bulgaria and Macedonia are running thin after a meeting between Prime Minster Oresharski and Macedonian Prime Minister Nikola Gruevski.

MANIPULATIONS AND FALSEHOODS

96. The existence of this Cabinet is only a reality due to the involvement of Ataka in the coalition. The Cabinet is dependent on Volen Siderov’s vote, known for his aggressive behaviour, far from acceptable for an MP. He is also known to support racism and hate speech, yet is in power with the Movement of Rights and Freedoms – the ’arch-nemesis’ of Ataka, as de-

ALPHA RESEARCH POLL

Despite the dismissal of Delyan Peevski as Head of DANS, the cli-entelistic system of government con-tinues to create massive civil critique. 7.5% of citizens over 18 think that in the period of “high governmental positions, the most competent and loyal individuals were chosen”, and around 84% would disagree. Even less, around 5%, agree that the “pro-cedures, in which individuals are ap-pointed and put forward to high posts, are transparent and fair. 82% (includ-ing 70% of supporters of the Social-ist party and 58% of supporters of the Movement of Rights and Freedoms) do not agree that the current govern-ment is lead in its action by those prin-ciples of transparency and honesty.The support for the Cabinet and the Prime Minister remains at the same level with which it started – 23% and 29%. What is dramatic however – and has almost doubled – is the rise in the negative assessment of their activity. If, at the beginning of June, around half of the Bulgarian population lacked a particular opinion on the job performed by the government, then at the end of August, those with a nega-tive outlook have risen from 28% to 47%, and towards the Prime Minister from 25% to 44%

clared by Siderov.

97. In Emil Ivanov’s place comes Aleksandur Meto-diev – commonly known as Uncle Sali – a man with a dubious reputation, connected with vote rigging, unclean deals, etc.

98. After two months of “tireless” work for the bet-terment of the Bulgarian nation, the Cabinet voted itself a one month holiday period.

99. The manipulative actions undertaken in the town of Devin and in Chepelare, where a petition in favour of the government was being prepared. In Devin the people had thought they were signing a petition for the opening of a new hospital, while in Chepelare – cheaper energy bills.

100. MP’s attempts to avoid declaring individuals close to them – wifes, parents, siblings, etc. – in their conflict of interests documentation.

101. SERGEY STANISHEV (former Prime-Minster and Leader of the Socialist Party) is the only MP without a handed in conflict of interests declaration.

102. The Movement of Rights and Freedoms MP, Pamadan Atalai, forgot a suitcase with 102 000 leva at a gas station. Police attempted to cover up the case.

103. Gaffe by the Ministry of Interior and the Pros-ecutor’s Office is going to lead to a failure in the case against the so-called new gang of murders. Surprisingly, Valentin Yanev – Valio the Wrestler, for whom the General Secretary for the Interior Ministry claimed he had evidence that Yanev had committed murder, turned out to be un-punishable and could not even be brought in for questioning.

Photo: Sava Chapanov


ACCENT

# What is the protest to you? Why have you been on the street already for three months? This protest is one tiny seed, a grain , which brings about a Rennaisance. It’s not that we just need it: this is simply our fight for survival. We can only survive if we’re a society of awakened people defending our interests. The naive faith that someone else will do it for us is very harmful. The world is quite cruel. Let me give a simple example :The jump in property prices, which led to the current world economic crisis. What happened? The prices rose year after year not because there was a real reason for that, but because there were peo-ple who took advantage along the chain. The constructors had an advantage to sell at high prices, the brokers would therefore take advantage – their commission will be higher too, the bank will take advantage – will give higher credit and eventually the state would get a higher tax on the sale. At the bottom of it all is the buyer, who pays. This scenario is everywhere: in the price of electricity, the price of tomatoes... Everywhere the ordinary person who pays the bill is left isolated and unprotected. If they don’t fight for their interests, no one will do it for them. They just don’t benefit from helping them. Same is in politics. With very few exceptions, the parties don’t want to have bright members. They need sheep to follow and obey, whom they can easily steal from. Bulgaria’s specific is that mafia parasites are so widespread, hun-gry to suck the blood of others, that they literally are suffocating/killing us. We, the awakened civil society, are the only chance to change how things are now.

# What would you tell those sceptical of the Protest Network(PN) ? Being sceptical is the Bulgarian National sport. When we’re not sceptics, we’re ex-alted and awfully naive. I don’t expect massive trust towards the Protest Network. From the very start we’re an object of distrust; of open or below-the-belt attacks; where our words are deliberately changed and lies distributed about our goals. And those are: the PN to serve the protesters to lead the government to resign as quickly as possible and to help us – the citizens – to start perceiving ourselves as a main contributor in Bulgarian political life. Like sovereigns, with their mechanisms to keep the political parties responsible for their actions every single day, and not only at times of elections. The Protest Network is not a political party, it will always be in opposition. If you’re honest, stand behind something real, and if you are true to this thing for long enough time, it will always achieve it’s goal. And nothing would stop it. That’s why I am not afraid of the tem-porary difficulties, of unavoidable mistakes or the “damage” along the way. Time will show clearly whom is whom and what they’re fighting for.

# It seems like the events from September 4th repelled a part of the pro-testers. There are upset people from both sides: GERB supporters and those who are against it. What’s your opinion? There are two main groups in the protest: protesters not identifying themselves with any political party, and supporters of the two right parties, GERB and the Reforma-tory Block. At the moment our common goal is clear – the resignation of the current mafia government. Those two groups should put aside their differences as much as possible, because the mafia at the top will hurt both of them equally. It will also hurt those who are supporting it at the moment. Because the credits taken, the stolen money, which will be delivered to some party funds and so called company loops, will have to be returned eventually by all of us. Even by those policemen, who are now guarding this government at the high price of immense pressure. On September 4th, the opposition parties officially supported the protest for first time.In the Protest Network, our principles clearly state that we cannot afford to sup-port political parties’ initiatives. If citizens who support various parties declare their support for the PN, this support will only be accepted as a non-party, with no other symbols but the Bulgarian flag, with no attempts that the protest be diverted from its purely civil nature. I think that the parties in opposition understand pretty well that they cannot “ride” the protest. Every attempt to do that can only split the people and eliminate the protest. Being a partisan protester myself I cannot say that I easily accept parties’ presence at the protest whatsoever. But let’s be realistic. We’ve been marching along the streets of the yellow cobbles for three months now – partisans and opposition supporters. The fact that a supporter of GERB is walking next to me in no way makes me obliged to vote for them at the elections. The fact that I have some criticism to-

Lachezar Kossev:Lachezar Kossev – you will see him every evening on the square. One of the first administrators of ДАНСwithme, one of the communicators of the Protest Network. A musician; father of four; a dreamer.

WE, THE AWAKENED CIVIL SOCIETY, ARE THE ONLY CHANCE FOR A CHANGE

wards the Reformatory Block does not necessarily mean that their supporters should think of me as an enemy.

# We often hear that it is not constructive to only insist for resignation, and the PN and the protest as a whole don’t have a vision on the consequences after a resignation. Is that true actually? The problem of all problems is as follows: the Bulgarian political environment is flooded with a sense of impunity. With no strong civil participation and protest, the parties know that they have 4 years guaranteed to do whatever they want, while we’re asleep or are quietly whining in front of our TV sets, but effectively doing noth-ing. This government is conceived in the most blatantly dirty way than all previous tran-sition governments. It demonstrates its dependencies every day taking scandalous decisions against the societal interests. In other countries the punishment for this is political death. Their resignation. When a criminal is punished for their crime this has a double effect. The first is for the criminal themselves, “here, you got what you deserved”. The second one might be even more important. It is for the other criminals or those who are tempted to commit such crimes. This criminal was punished. If you do the same, you’ll be punished too. A deterrent. If we, the citizens, stand with this clear message to the politicians, this will entirely change the situation. There’s an ex-pression in football: the team plays as much as the other team allows them to. They have had the chance to play their ball while we, the citizens were sitting in the stalls and waiting for them to score. Well, this is not happening any longer and that’s why, all of us, immediately went to the yellow cobbles and square! OSTAVKA!!! It’s about time we turn our national sport from scepticism to an awoken and active democracy.

# What do you wish for Bulgaria?Pure and Sacred Republic. This was the dream of our Apostle, (the national hero Vassil Levski who is revered by Bulgarians). Before the protest I have only imagined what I would feel like should Levski show up in front of me, alive and real. How ashamed I would be that people like him gave their lives for Bulgaria and for us, and we are living in our own separate worlds being indifferent to what is happening around us. It would seem as if they shed their blood in vain. Now, participation in the protest is giving us dignity and hope. I imagine I can meet him now, kiss his hand and say: “Apostle, we are walking proudly and believe that we can. Your Pure and Sacred Republic is our dream, our goal.” I wish that Bulgaria “belongs” to Levski and not to Peevski.

Photo: Tihomira Metodieva

INTERVIEW

ACCENT


Bulgaria is a country which somewhat defies the common Eastern European, post-socialist path to democratiza-

tion. In many ways, there is no visible progress towards the consolidation of the democratic regime and in 2013, it lags significantly behind the benchmark set by its neighbouring countries. Today, the country is marked by anti-government protests, which have continued on a daily basis for the last 113 days. People have consistently requested the resignation of the current Socialist-led government, which clearly serves the in-terests of former communists and current business elites. The coalition Cabinet is completely unaccountable to the people it claims to represent. To a large extent, Bulgaria’s political system remains a facade democracy, where a mixture between mem-bers of the old regime and newly formed oligarchies seemingly dominate the distribution of resources and the official political discourses.

Bulgaria, despite being a member of the European Union since 2007, seems closer to Russia than, for example to Slo-vakia, when one assesses its democratic building progress in 2013. Let’s take one vital institution to the democratic process – freedom of the press: according to the 2013 Press Freedom Index of the Journalists Without Borders foundation, Bulgaria has fallen to number 87 (out of 179 countries in total) from 34th in 2003. This makes it the second-lowest ranked country in South East and Central Europe after Albania. The Associa-tion of European Journalists has gone further in suggesting

Freedom of Press and Bulgaria’s DemocracyNikolay Nikolov (9th of September, 2013)

that in Bulgaria, every 3rd journalist is forced into a process of self-censorship. Slovakia, on the other hand, is ranked 23rd this year, having fallen from the number 1 spot in 2004. And then there is Russia, which has hovered around the rank of 148th over the last ten years.

And that is, unfortunately, of no surprise to most of us: we are all aware of the level of censorship in Russia, making the country the most dangerous place in Europe for journalists. In Putin’s last 12 years of government, tens of journalists (includ-ing Anna Politkovskaya) have been brutally murdered for at-tempting to oppose and challenge the official media discourse. In Russia, there is no attempt to hide the erosive effect on the potential development of democracy – Russia today remains a highly autocratic and repressive regime, controlled and per-petuated largely by the figure of Vladimir Putin.

Now let’s compare that to the situation in Bulgaria. Many years ago now, I remember vividly one of the first direct con-frontations between the media and the political elite. Journalist Ivo Indzhev was immediately fired from his popular TV show ’Bullseye’ aired on the Bulgarian BTV in 2006, after he posed questions regarding the alleged ownership of a luxury duplex apartment offered as a gift to former President Georgi Parva-nov. Since that incident, the Press Freedom Index has been on the decline in Bulgaria. Today, however, the situation has dete-riorated to unprecedented levels.


Source: http://en.rsf.org/press-freedom-index-2013,1054.html

ACCENT


Last month, morning show hosts Anna Tsolova and Viktor Nikolaev were immediately suspended after interviewing Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski and pressing the question of who had appointed Delyan Peevski as head of the National Security Agency (DANS) – that crucial appointment, which sparked the #ДАНСwithme protest movement in June. Subsequently, other Bulgarian journalists found themselves suspended with-out formal notification or explanation. For instance, Channel 3 host Lilly Marinkova was also taken off air after also asking the now famous and omnipresent, “Who?” question.

Furthermore, the Bulgarian correspondents to Deutsche Welle, Ivan Bedrov and Emi Baruh, had their contracts inter-rupted (but since have been reinstated as a consequence of popular pressures and inquiries of intent) because their recent work focused on the parcelization of Bulgarian national capi-tal, the true oligarchs and beneficiaries of the current political system.

On September 16th, the car of Genka Shikerova, a respected journalist in Bulgaria, was set on fire. This sets a new precedent in the country where it may no longer be just their job that journalist ought to worry about. The case remains under in-vestigation.

This is a simple diagnosis of the deeply damaged Bulgarian media plurality. What is even worse is that the media in Bul-garia lacks transparency and the entire “media ownership in Bulgaria is like a Matryoshka doll: there is always one figure behind the other,” according to Orlin Spassov at Sofia Univer-sity, quoted in The Economist (April 23, 2013).

It is clear now that Delyan Peevski’s New Bulgarian Media Group owns an enormous chunk of newspapers, magazines, websites, and TV and Radio stations (See table below). It has also become known, as reported by Ivan Bedrov, that this me-dia groups is tightly connected to the Corporate Commercial Bank (CCB) (owned by Tsvetan Vassilev), which is its major financier. This is the bank used to finance major public projects in energy, transport and defense sectors.

In a word, there is a triangle of vested interests lying between the media empire of Peevski, Vassilev’s bank and the current Cabinet. In effect, a large number of Bulgarian media outlets, including the country’s highest-circulating newspaper, Tele-graph, and TV7 (which has one of the biggest TV budgets) are far from independent and do not even try to hide the fact that they are a part of a dense web of conjoining business oligarchs and political parties.

It is no wonder then that the German Ambassador to Bulgar-ia, Matthias Höpfner, has recently stated in an interview that

WEBSITES

www.blitz.bgwww.vsekiden.bgwww.3bay.bgwww.bnews.bgwww.monitor.bgwww.inews.bgwww.econ.bgwww.sporta.bgwww.get.bg

TV STATIONS

TV7News7The Voice

RADIO STATIONS

Magic FMVitoshaVesselinaThe Voice

MAGAZINES

AutobildHello!Weekend za ZhenataBiograph

+ at least 4 more owned by the New Bulgarian Media Group

NEWSPAPERS

Weekend (Уикенд)Show (Шоу)Vseki Den (Всеки Ден)Telegraph (Телеграф)Monitor (Монитор)Politika (Политика)Novinar (Новинар)Utro – Ruse (Утро)Maritsa – Plovdiv (Марица)Struma – Blagoevgrad (Струма)

this concentration of the media in the hands of the oligarchy poses one of the biggest problems to democracy in Bulgaria. “Media are vital for modern democracy”, says Ambassador Höpfner. “Today, we speak more often about media democra-cy. If the presentation of the political processes through media functions well, then even the political system which depends on oligarchy could start functioning in a democratic manner. On the other hand, the weakness of the media hampers the democratic processes in a certain society and then we speak of a façade democracy.”

He however sees hope in the situation, and so do I, in what is often called the revival of the civil society through the protest movement in Bulgaria. It is a sign of the growing embedding of the European values protected and pursued by the European Union, which are closely linked to the existence of a free and independent media. And Höpfner is correct in saying that the protests were stimulated by a joint push for transparency, jus-tice, and democratic accountability. #ДАНСwithme became the first word of a new language facilitated for and by the peo-ple and against the growing entrenchment of their freedom by the political elites.

The situation in Bulgaria right now represents a deep clash of cultures, where we are now positioned somewhere between Slovakia and Russia. It is our identity and our freedom, which are at stake in this fight for the truth. Yet I strongly believe in the long-term impact of the protests and can see the slow ero-sion of this backward and repressive system in the years to come. The protests have made the crucial first step in challeng-ing the control of what is true and are slowly deconstructing the oligarchic spiral. It is simply a matter of time.

* This list was compiled from Internet articles and public corporate registers;* Delyan Peevski is a stake-holder with a varying stake in the given corporation, though often his stake-holdings are sole-ownerships.

Photo: Tihomira Metodieva

ACCENT


Nikolay Nikolov Petko Bossakov

Elena HambardzhievaBorislav Gizdavkov

Polikseniya AngelovaElena Bozhinova

Ivan Topalov Svetozara Davidkova

This newspaper, as well as its Bulgarian version, depend entirely on its readers for extending its reach and increasing its numbers. It is financed entirely through charity and the funding is transparently accounted for and described regularly on the website of the Protest Network. We wish for this paper to reach as many interested people as possible and we hope that you will find time to both read and pass it along. Print and share; send it in its digital form. We thank you sincerely for your support and time. For any further information contact us at: [email protected]

The English version of “Bulgarian Protests” is presented and published by the volunteer work of:

Hello. How are you?Thank you for being there. For us it is very important.Remember how a while ago we oc-cupied the largest auditorium at the University?That’s when the freeing of usurped Bulgaria began.That’s when we built an independent territory at the university, and hence an independent territory within our-selves.In our actions we were looking for opportunity and hope not only for our country, but for humanity.And your expectations made us re-sponsible. They required us to say something more than “Resign!”. So it’s our turn, the turn of our genera-tion... to speak... to request... to dem-onstrate.These are the children of the transi-tion. We saw a lot.They taught us with examples from the street and the media. The exam-ples imposed on us were mobsters and their mistresses, dodgers and criminals. Regarding us, they were saying that we had failed. That we had no common ideals, no cause. That we are hyper-individualists; that we have atomized and isolated ourselves; that we did not know how to perceive others. The talk about us, in most cases, was negative.But we do not delude ourselves, be-cause we know that everyone was right about some things.However, our lives are changing too. The occupation creates a community.We insist on humanity, solidarity, re-

A Holiday Message From The Early Rising StudentsTranslation by Petko Bossakov

Photo: Yanne Golev

sponsibility and morality. We do not want lies, unscrupulousness, corrup-tion, irresponsibility, lack of trans-parency, mean words, empty talk, no response or reaction.It cannot be so. For all of us. This has to stop.The University auditorium is speak-ing to everyone. The battle has been waged for centuries and will go on. Good and evil – that’s all. The able ones, the thinking ones... against the agitators, adventurers, mercenaries, the absurd ones.The People against the Mafia.On Christmas Day we say to you that the chance of winning is not small.We win on the inside, every day that we think about it. Every day in which we’re together, in which we love each

other, in which we support each oth-er and think a little more positively.Not only on Christmas. But on ev-ery... single... day... of our lives.We took up the baton. Because... our time is now. Maybe it was too soon. But we know that change requires time and participation. We have no vain illusions. We believe in our-selves, we believe in you. We have a lot of courage and a lot of patience. And we will not surrender, and we will not stop, and we will hold on, and we will fight, and... that’s it.Our reason is because we insist on the present. Because we all want a future in Bulgaria. Together.Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May it be a Great one.

Happy New Year 2014; let’s make it a great one.

BULGARIAN PROTESTS · 2016. 3. 15. · tablishment of true democracy, it did not lead automatically...

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Transcript of BULGARIAN PROTESTS · 2016. 3. 15. · tablishment of true democracy, it did not lead automatically...