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I know that the current member of ALDE is the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. Maybe we liberals are making a fresh start in Bulgaria. The country has many citizens who support liberal ideas. Even a few days ago, I spoke to two 18-year-old girls who expressed their desire to help towards the establishment of the Alliance in Bulgaria because they believe in human rights, the need for people to have a mind, body and life like the ones they want, but there is no political power with which to express those ideas at the moment.

The Movement for Rights and Freedoms attempts to do this, but there it still has a long way to go. There is also the Centre for Liberal Strategies, which does a very good job at a theoretical level for the acceptance of liberal ideas in Bulgaria. I think that we need to move on and implement liberal policies in practice, too.

How do you evaluate the role of the media in relation to the European elections?

This is a very serious matter. Unfortunately, we have not yet come out of the great conglomeration of centralization. For example, the Gefires coalition will not be entitled to broadcasting time on large TV channels, despite the fact that they have the required rate according to the law for small parties. And Gefires is the only, and largest, non-parliamentary party and should have relevant media coverage. Therefore, we have filed a complaint to the Supreme Administrative Court.

In general, the role of the media is far from the one it should be. They do not give voice to political forces which cannot be heard, because they are smaller.

I think that the same is happening in Bulgaria. There is also a concentration of the media, which prevents smaller formations from being presented and heard.

What is your message to voters in Europe?

That at the European elections, we vote for Europe and are not guided by our internal issues. Large parties are trying to convince us that they are a referendum for the national elections. This is not true.

At these elections, we will vote for an equal and democratic Europe, a Europe which belongs to us all. This is an opportunity for its citizens to support smaller parties which have a European voice and a programme. While in Greece, we have not yet heard what the ideas of major parties in terms of the development of Europe are. None of them has said anything about how they see the future of Europe and what they want to change there.

Less than a month before the European elections nobody in Greece is talking about European problems, but only about national ones, and the difference is huge. But this is not happening in many countries, only in Greece. There are even parties which, according to polls, could be described as large, but have still not announced in which European party they will be involved. In this case, we should say that we have a democratic deficit. They want people to vote for them without being aware of which European political party they support.

Drasi and Gefires are members of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe, which is the third strongest political party in the European Parliament. It focuses on human rights, diversity, equal opportunities for all and the right of self-determination. I urge GRReporter.info readers to vote with European criteria for small parties which have a vision for Europe.

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