NEWS

The strengthening of the civil society in Bulgaria will lead to a new phase of democratic consolidation, President Rosen Plevneliev forecast

President Rosen Plevneliev called on the students from the American University in Blagoevgrad for a new phase of democratic consolidation which can be achieved by strengthening the civil society in Bulgaria. In a lecture entitled “For a better future: who should take the initiative?”, the Head of State said that in Bulgaria further efforts should be put into strengthening the rule of law, of the independent and objective media, of market economy and the public institutions. “During the 24 years of transition, it became clear that simply having democratic party-system, putting all the laws and institutions in place, is not enough to create long-term democratic stability. Only investment in longer term pillars of democracy can really bring maturity to the democracies of the region,” Rosen Plevneliev addressed almost 400 students and lecturers at the American University.  

According to the President, the current institutional crisis in Bulgaria is the result of the structural problems of the democratic system, which the Bulgarian society has failed to completely overcome for a 24-year transition. Such are the governmental dependencies on the oligarchic structures which actively influence the political agenda via concentration of media and active behind-curtain policy-making, lack of transparency for large government al projects, justice system that is not effective and independent enough. “At the beginning we considered this a national problem. However, this is a regional phenomenon for Central and Eastern Europe. A trend is observed in our young democracies in the whole region for retreating from milestone achievements of democracy, once left without support,” President Rosen Plevneliev said.

In 2013 the civil society came back on the scene staging a wave of spontaneous protests and demanding a change, the people raised the problem about how Bulgarian economy and democracy function, the Head of State emphasized in his lecture. “We have witnessed unprecedented protests, political confrontation and historically low levels of trust in the institutions and politicians not only in Bulgaria, but also worldwide. Today civil society sets a different agenda. The relevant issue is whether the politicians are ready to change,” Rosen Plevneliv said. According to him, today we see “the highest level of political confrontation since the beginning of the transition and a tendency for its aggravation,” and our country is in a state of an all-embracing political crisis, with a high level of revanchist attitudes, a deficit of dialogue and a constructive approach.

The President once again highlighted the problems clearly indicated by the Bulgarian citizens – low incomes, unemployment, corruption, problems with the rule of law, poor healthcare, dependent media, young people leaving the country. Citizens do not care much about the rating of politicians, they care about the above mentioned main problems of the nations. Solving these problems takes time but it is not so difficult, the Head of State said. “For example - the solution for low income is reforms for a competitiveness and a better business environment to attract more investments. The solution for unemployment is support the small and middle size enterprises. The solution for corruption is e-Government. The solution for healthcare is reform and introduce e-Healthcare,” Rosen Plevneliev emphasized.

“It is already clear to all of us that the prosperity, the rule of law and the democracy are not automatically received with an EU membership. We have to work for them,” the Head of State was adamant. The Head of State commented that after 45 years of communism, our country has institutions “which have the form and   façade of the European ones but in content and results do not meet peoples’ expectations.”  “And I consider the civil society’s active position today as a very positive sign that people care, people act and people change,” the Head of State further added.

In his lecture, President Rosen Plevneliev defined as remarkable the historical transformation that the countries from SEE underwent in the past 20 years. After the collapse of communism there, we have good neighbors and friends there.  According to him, the Euro-Atlantic partnership is also a key factor for protecting the SEE countries from the threat of retreating from democracy. The instruments for achieving that are again the active civil society, the building of institutions, as well as the active economic and political commitments of the Euro-Atlantic partners.

“One of the lessons that we have learned is that the change of game would come if we start to work as a region. This strategy would mean removing all the misunderstandings and virtual boundaries that separate our countries. On their place we should put: new roads to connect and help us make business, new style of partnership based on mutual trust, and creativity coming as a result of our diversity,” the Head of State further added.

“The future is bright, direction is clear, but who needs to take the initiative? The right answer is: we all! This is what we learn from the past, I gave you some examples. This is what we learn also from our recent history. We do not trust so much super heroes and populists any more, we better trust strong democratic institutions and active civil society that safeguard our rules and our values. And this really depends on us,” Rosen Plevneliev addressed the students from the American University in Bulgaria.

As for the ongoing civil discontent the President commented that the politicians should not be afraid of the protests, but should carefully listen to the people’s demands. “In each single state the politicians should be happy when the young people voice their opinion about what they are ready to fight for,” the Head of State said in reply to a question asked by students present in the hall of the American University.  In Rosen Plevneliev’s words, so far the demands of the young people have usually been neglected. “However, turning our backs to the problems is a 100-percent recipe guaranteeing lack of success! There is no other way people can implement their ideas other than having functioning institutions, therefore I again call on the politicians to listen to the voice of the citizens and to jointly make the institutions start functioning,” President Rosen Plevneliev further added.