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The elections have established the Attack party as one of the leading political forces in Bulgaria

16 May 2013 / 20:05:52  GRReporter
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Anastasia Balezdrova

The Attack party has not only been able to enter the new parliament, but it has also increased the number of its deputies. In the present hard economic and social situation, Bulgaria's next government largely depends on it as well.

GRReporter is talking with deputy Ventsislav Lakov about the Attack party’s ideology, its future and the "red lines" that it will not cross in the negotiations to form a coalition government.

Mr. Lakov, during last Sunday’s elections, the Attack party has established itself as one of the leading political forces in Bulgaria. What is the cause for this success?

There are many reasons for this success. One of them is the fact that the Attack party has never been in power so far. We have never ruled unlike the existing traditional parties, which for 23 years, so to speak, have reduced Bulgaria to beggary.

The second very important reason is that the Attack party expresses the demands of ordinary Bulgarians, of the people who went out in the streets to protest against the former government. Even upon the establishment of the party in 2005, we were the first to formulate our main demands that today coincide with those of the protesting Bulgarian citizens, namely the abolition of the colonial model, which is now draining the country. We are fighting for more government control in the economy, preferences for the Bulgarian manufacturers, eliminating the monopolies, revisions of the unfavourable concession contracts that have been draining not only natural resources, control over large retailers, telecom operators, petrol stations, banks, the major part of which are not Bulgarian. All this should be controlled by the state and in a way that should ensure that the profits remain in Bulgaria. The Bulgarian citizens have come to conclusions about what should be done in their own way. This explains the great support we have received. Despite the crisis, the attempts to split us, and the media silence connected with the party during the previous two terms of the government, we have registered a growth and the number of our deputies has increased to 23.

What will the role of the Attack party be in the situation after the elections? What are the party’s "red lines", which will be its main demands in the political negotiations for participation in a coalition government?

The Attack party will fight for its election programme. We were the only party that came out with a written election programme, which is called "The Siderov plan against colonial slavery" and which is a booklet of 143 pages. In 16 chapters, ministry by ministry, we explain our particular views and proposals for the development of Bulgaria. We will not deviate from this programme and we will pose the issues to which we have a ready answer and a solution on how to change them, and we will fight for their implementation.

The aim is, as I said, to significantly increase the income of people because now poverty is the main problem in Bulgaria. Therefore, we state in our programme that we are fighting for a minimum salary of 1,000 lev and a minimum pension of 500 lev.

How can this be achieved? What is your proposal for the economic policy?

The measures are many:  promoting Bulgarian business, changing the tax, pension and healthcare systems. The most important thing is the state control over natural resources and over the draining of national income by monopolies and concessionaires. For example, I can say that about 4 billion leva are annually exported as a profit only by gold mining, which is a concession on the cheap.

Furthermore, tightening of customs procedures in order to prevent smuggling, which is on a particularly large scale.  We say “no” to cartel agreements of big producers and big retail chains and I am emphasizing again the revival of Bulgarian business in order for the economy to revive as well. It will revive through increased consumption due to higher incomes that seem ridiculously low in comparison with impoverished Greece. In Greece, which the crisis has hit hard, incomes are several times higher. In Bulgaria, where supposedly there is no crisis and which supposedly is an island of financial stability, people are three or four times poorer.

We explain how we can achieve this in our programme. The point is that for the time being, no political party has had the will to do so. We have this will and we will defend our principles and proposals.

It is important to emphasize that now we are practically servants of the European Union. In response to my question, in the previous parliament the Minister of Economy at the time, Simeon Dyankov, acknowledged that the amount we obtain in the form of funds from the European Union actually is equal to the amount we pay as contributions. However, we cannot absorb the funds because Bulgarian co-financing is required, but the state cannot provide it. Thus, in practice, we are donors of the European Union. We are giving more than we are receiving. This is the sad truth.

The main point in politics should be to defend the Bulgarian national interests and the interests of ordinary citizens instead of the interests of the oligarchs, monopolies and colonizers, as we call them.

We rely on the opening of the country to other non-traditional and non-European markets too. I mean the countries of the BRICS group: Brazil, India, China, Russia, South Africa, and why not Vietnam, which have reported very stable economic growth in recent years. We have to open to them and to try to find both investments and opportunities to sell our products.

Tags: PoliticsNationalist partyAttack partyParliamentElectionsVolen SiderovVentsislav Lakov
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