Galery

1

However, if elections are not won honestly but through manipulation and this continues, if GERB oppresses the political competition, by gradually taking over the media and puts pressure on the public, then this would be terrible. I think we are now in a situation in which we are still deciding exactly what is happening. Honestly, I myself am also swinging around. Obviously all public studies show that GERB has very strong support, that the leader of GERB is the most popular politician, etc. On the other hand there are enough indications for electoral manipulation and pressure on journalists. These are very disturbing things.

How would you comment on the refusal of the European Union to include Bulgaria in the Schengen area?

On this issue there is no difference between the position of the Bulgarian government and my personal opinion. This is a double standard, because Bulgaria has fulfilled all the technical requirements and should be accepted. This does not mean that Bulgaria has no problems, corruption, unresolved problems with the judiciary system, police and Ministry of the Interior. All these things are true, but they were not set as conditions for Bulgaria's accession to Schengen. Now the Netherlands is blocking our entry for such considerations. They are fair, but were not contractual, i.e. they were not part of the initial contracts. For this reason we are talking about a double standard that should be rejected. Furthermore, I think that this is not the decision of the entire European Union, but it is simply the exercise of a veto by one Member State. Why is it doing it? Everyone says that in this way the Netherlands is solving its own internal problems.

How does this affect the attitude of the Bulgarians to the European Union?

I do not think Schengen affects so much the ordinary Bulgarian. I think he cares about something else and it provoked paradoxical outbursts of nationalism during and after the accession of Bulgaria to the European Union. In the micro-academic circles we have often discussed this topic and we have formulated it in the following way: This was an accession of Bulgaria without any cultural recognition. Thus, Bulgaria joined the European Union in a bureaucratic way but in fact what the Bulgarian people identify themselves with, what they are proud of and so on remained unknown and uninteresting. Somehow the media and cultural image of the Bulgarians in Europe was not changed one bit. This of course creates some very complex emotions. On the one hand you are a member of the European Union, on the other hand you know you are not. This causes public traumatism and often leads to radical nationalism.