SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS

Statement made by President Rosen Plevneliev after the meeting held with the presidents of Bulgaria and the speakers of the National Assembly since the beginning of the changes on 10 November 1989 to the present day

Esteemed president Stoyanov,
Esteemed ladies and gentlemen speakers of the National Assembly during the transition period

Let me, first of all, acquaint the nation with a statement made on the occasion of the 24th anniversary since the beginning of the democratic changes in Bulgaria and after that summarize the extremely interesting and useful debate held today.

As a society and state, we have achieved a lot during the past 24 years, yet we have also failed to accomplish a lot.

The gloomy shadow of communism and totalitarianism, with its camps, repression and the shattering of millions of human fates, is left back in history.  The political changes led to establishing a democratic political system, at the heart of which the Constitution adopted on 12 July 1991 lies. Although a lot of people criticized it, the Constitution proved to be a strong foundation of our democracy. At times of crises it more than once guaranteed not only the division of powers and the principles of the rule-of-law state, but also the rights and freedoms of the Bulgarian citizens.

These right and freedoms created an environment from which the seeds of the civil society in Bulgaria could grow. And it was namely the civil society that was not only the corrective, but also the engine of change at decisive moments.

Despite the political opposition in the 90’s, which was quite strong at times, the Bulgarian society agreed on the important national priorities and the idea of a united Europe. They were not merely a goal, but became a national cause. Thanks to the political consensus reached, although difficult to reach, Bulgaria made its civilization choice to become part of the Euro-Atlantic family.

A couple of governments, parliaments and presidents, irrespective of their party affiliation, pooled consistent and considerable efforts to promote this so important national cause. Bulgaria’s NATO and EU membership was the final result of the citizens’ and political elite’s efforts, united in one direction. The success showed that when we have common interests, when the public has set itself a common goal and the politicians pursue this goal, results will be achieved on time.  

The transition brought about not only a political, but also an economic change. Restoring private property removed a historical injustice. Private property created conditions for the development of the free economic initiative and for building a market economy.

Preserving the ethnic peace after the scars left from the communist-era Revival process and the raging wars in the West Balkans performed a crucial role in the consolidation of Bulgarian democracy. For yet another time in their history the Bulgarians showed their tolerance. Way back a century and a half ago the Apostle of Freedom wrote: “Our goal is to achieve fraternity with everyone, irrespective of their faith and nationality.” The fathers-founders of the contemporary Bulgarian state embedded his message in article 71 of the Turnovo Constitution: “Any slave of any sex, faith and nationality will become free once they set their foot on Bulgarian territory.” And this text does not remain simply a piece of paper. Bulgaria welcomed the Armenian and other groups of refugees with open arms and during World War II the Bulgarian civil society did not allow the Jews to be burned to ashes in the Nazis gas chambers. These messages of our grandfathers should be a flag of any real patriot today.

What did we fail to achieve? The greatest challenge we are facing is how to overcome the feeling of a lack of justice. The result of this feeling is the erosion of the trust in the political elite, the parties and institutions. In order to overcome this, the politicians must carefully listen to what the citizens say and live up to the standard of the people’s trust. The institutions must be efficient, transparent, and must guarantee that the rules are obeyed by everyone.

The low standard of living, unemployment, the demographic crisis are some of the most serious problems society is facing. We failed to provide opportunities and create an environment which could make the young people stay in Bulgaria and develop their potential here.

The market economy and the judiciary should be improved. The education and healthcare sectors need a fundamental reform. We are still far away from the media reform, which is a key reform for democracy. People have the feeling that cloak-and-dagger arrangements direct important political processes. We have failed to cope with the shadows from the past and have failed to send communist-era state security and the dossiers in the state archive, where they should have been long ago.

Due to the Arab Spring and the crisis in Syria, we are facing a new serious challenge. As our grandfathers did earlier, we are called upon to express our age-old Bulgarian tolerance to the people in trouble, irrespective of their origin and nationality. The attempts to stoke hatred and reap party dividends, inspired by fake nationalism are dangerous and pose enormous risks.

What we lack today most is a common cause, the new big goal to agree on and pursue. Although it has already become clear to everyone that EU membership is an important condition for development, we alone should build our prosperity, using the opportunities the membership provides us with.

Our experience from the past 24 transition years shows that success comes only if we have a strategic aim, if we reach agreement on the nation’s priorities and together pool efforts to fulfill them. Today, almost a quarter of a century after the changes, we should recall an important lesson. Even in days of extreme political opposition there are a couple of important goals we should agree on. Will anyone deny the necessity of continuing the reform in the judiciary so that the law administration system can be effective and always work to the benefit of truth and the citizens. Corruption, oligarchy and monopolies are a hindrance to market economy. The small and medium-sized enterprises comprise 99 percent and they are the important enterprises, not a small group of influential businessmen. All politicians publicly recognize the problems, it is high time we agreed on concrete policies and decisions. The Bulgarian society cannot be a hostage to the lack of media freedom, we need guarantees that only objective information will form the citizens’ opinions. Of course, although the media have the right to voice their opinion, they should tell the truth.

The President’s Office has always been open to debates with the political parties for reaching a consensus on long-term priorities. On the very first day I took office, I said how important it is to agree on the National Program for Development “Bulgaria 2020.” I call on all political parties to turn their back to their narrow-party interests for the sake of the nation’s future.

If we agree on and recognize the national priorities, I am ready to work on amendments in the Constitution, so as to remove any obstacles and weaknesses in it. Thus Bulgaria could be a really democratic, rule-of-law and fair country and we can guarantee the supreme principles of the individual’s rights, their worthiness and security.

Now let me summarize today’s debate and the discussion we held, for which I am once again extremely grateful to all who joined us today.

Let me also note that presidents Zhelyo Zhelev and Georgi Purvanov called today to provide their excuses for not coming – president Zhelev has health problems in his family, which prevented him from joining us at the very last moment and president Purvanov has arrangements planned in advance which also prevented him from coming.

Let me highlight the most important issues we debated today.

First of all, although each one of the statesmen here today is very different, there is one thing that unites them and this is Bulgaria. I will start with the Bulgarian language as one of the first topics we debated and I will elaborate on all topics in turn without assuming that one of them is most important, because I believe that all of them are important. The Bulgarian language as something we should pay serious attention to – how do we educate the youth. The example set by the Bulgarian Assembly deputies, by the Bulgarian politicians as a whole and the responsible attitude in the way they express themselves in Bulgarian is very important. So is the way we use Bulgarian, we should protect it, we should not work in a way that our language and ideas serve only pragmatism and handling situations.

Secondly, unfortunately politicians today fight not only as members of specific parties, but also as individuals. This is unacceptable. When there are interpersonal wars and the politicians start attacking each other as people, hating each other as people, then, of course, it is difficult to build any bridges whatsoever. They simply burn all bridges. This is a major concern which we all share.

Thirdly, the escalation of hatred and opposition, the serious confrontation that has arisen is a serious problem which, unfortunately, step-by-step but surely erodes the state. This is a harsh fact and a problem we must solve.

Education, of course, is a very important topic for us. It needs a serious reform and I, as president, take on the commitment in a next debate to do what is necessary so that we can seek a consensus among all factors – political parties, both represented in parliament and outside parliament and other factors in the state on the topic of the reform in the education sector. I include the healthcare sector in this category.

Fifth, each one of us as a statesman has faced and resolved their crises and they had to perform the role of a good balancer. Each one of the Bulgarian statesmen has had their critical moments. We have often made mistakes, yet it is very important that we avoid mistakes at the important moments.

Sixth, the problem of all problems, as we all named it today, the problem of all problems is the one having to do with the division of the nation – we are in a very tense stage of opposition. We reached a stage in which citizens are against “counter-citizens”, protests against counter protests, Sofia against the country and others. Unfortunately, the Messianic zeal, populism and of course, ultra-liberalism as such are part of our everyday lives. Of course, there is nothing bad about that, but we should know that this is the way things are and we should seek for the solid pillars of society. The real solutions are to be found not in extremes but in something we have already achieved, something which our people has long pinpointed and something that we should build on.

The deep feeling of non-functioning institutions is a serious problem and therefore it is very important to strengthen the institutions and to encourage the civil activity.

Eighth, all of us are very concerned about the social status of the Bulgarians today. We all very well know what the situation is and that almost half of the nation is endangered by poverty.

Tenth, we had a debate on the totalitarian state and what we agreed on is that it is important to tell the whole truth, not half of the truth. What is very important in this respect is that when we speak about the totalitarian state as such, considering its minuses, its negative aspects, we should also point out the positive ones. For instance, positive aspects such as Bulgaria’s industrialization at that time, education and other important elements.

Tenth, what is our cause? What we all want to achieve, and what the people has long reached a consensus on is the European standard of living and of course a European policy-making, including a European morality in politics.

Eleventh, the feeling of unfinished and imperfect things done, of the incompleteness of the changes, of the whole transition, of course creates serious problems. And therefore we agreed on the opinion that, yes, nobody is perfect, the institutions are not perfect. Our democratic transition, of course, is not perfect. However, we should lend a hand to the positive achievements. And the fact that the Bulgarian people and the Bulgarian political elite managed to open the door to a NATO and EU membership is a good deed, which can be highlighted as an example. We should congratulate those who have contributed to achieving such a success for the Bulgarian statehood and the Bulgarian nation and we should highlight the good achievements and build on them.

Twelfth, predictability and security are very important. They should be guaranteed not only on the institutional, but also on the political level. Insecurity, the frequent changes, considering each previous government as bad does not help. We would like to highlight the actions of the political leaders, of the political parties, of the institutions which are part of this reversible, yet very important trend, namely – more predictability, more long-term goals, consensus on a couple of important topics. And we should not quarrel and fight at least on these topics, but build on them.

The feeling of injustice was the next topic we debated on and of course, the judiciary plays a very, very important role. If the Constitution is to be amended, something we also discussed today, maybe one of the sections of the Bulgarian Constitution that could and should be amended is related to the judiciary and they way it functions. However, of course, it is very important to reach a consensus on the changes in the judiciary and on any ensuing amendment in the Constitution. The amendments should not be made piecemeal, they should be made in the conditions of a wide public debate, in a European manner. Although this will take time, it is the correct approach to be adopted.

And again I go back to the issue of the predictability of the institutions. Moreover, the topic involves future amendments in the Constitution. It requires a wide public debate.

Finally I would like to thank all of you. It was an honor for me to be together with you. This is an informal dialogue, an informal forum which we organized today. However, I think that each one of us will draw their conclusions.

I thank the media which were together with us today.

Thank you.