NEWS

Joint Declaration of Rosen Plevneliev, President of the Republic of Bulgaria, and the Prime Minister of the Republic of Bulgaria Plamen Oresharski

In the past days and weeks we have observed actions which pose a danger to democracy and the unity of the nation.

The attempts to stir up hatred and intolerance to the different person, to incite the Bulgarians against each other, to play with ethnic peace and use the language of hatred are unacceptable and should be strongly condemned.

Bulgaria is famous worldwide for its tolerance and respect for the different person. Our country went through its transition period to democracy, relying on the ethnic peace and the unity of the Bulgarians. Therefore the preamble of the Constitution points out common human values we should agree on: freedom, peace, humanism, equality, justice and tolerance.

The constitutional principle that all citizens are equal before the law is also an achievement of our ambition to live in a democratic society. No restrictions of the rights or privileges based on race, nationality, ethnicity, sex, origin, religion, education, beliefs, political affiliation, personal and social status or material status are acceptable.

Joining the EU and NATO, Bulgaria made its civilization choice. The stability of the institutions, the lack of discrimination, the freedom of speech, pluralism and the right to make a free choice, either religious or political, are the basic principles of the path we have chosen to build a modern and prospering society.

All institutions, political parties, NGOs, as well as their individual representatives should pool efforts to avert fueling intolerance, to ease the tension and put an end to the split in society.

On the eve of the day of Levski it is inadmissible to take advantage of namely the Apostle of Freedom, ethnic peace and the unity of the nation in order to achieve short-term political goals and cheap populism. Vasil Levski said: “You should be concerned about people’s deeds more than about anything else and should respect them more than you respect yourself.” “Everything depends on our joint efforts, everyone will be held responsible for their deeds.”

Today more than ever should we adopt a responsible approach to preserving the basic democratic achievements. If we waste any of these achievements, we will distance ourselves from our civilization choice to be equal with the other European peoples. “We are playing with the lives of seven million Bulgarians, we should act in a mature manner,” the Apostle said.