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Anastasia Balezdrova

For the 26^th consecutive day, the people are out in the streets of Sofia, spontaneously protesting against the government and parliament, without the support of any party or trade union organization. Their insistence has confused the government that tried to stop the mass participation by calling the protesters "idiots" and "George Soros’ paid mercenaries".

So far, GRReporter has sought political scientists, sociologists, political analysts and journalists to analyze the events. Today, it presents one of the tens of thousands of protesters. Poet and freelance publisher Vladimir Lyubenov who describes himself as a good taxpayer and active citizen is telling us why he is involved in the protests and what he expects from them.

The protests

We, the people who participate in the protest every day, are hoping that the government will fall soon, before the ministers and deputies escape and take a summer holiday. They, in turn, are hoping to stay over the winter. This is actually the struggle at present, namely, how long the cabinet will survive.

I am not at the protest every day but I am there twice a day on some days instead. What irritated me and made me go out in the street was that they had gone too far regarding their insanity which started with the incorrect interpretation of the results of the recent elections by the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP) and their collaborating partner the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF). They thought that they had won the elections and, since their attitude to the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party was quite revanchist, they have decided that they will do whatever they want with them. Even the few people who had voted for the BSP and the MRF have never sent them to parliament to settle accounts with GERB.

They had started acting on a personal basis. Every sound-minded person saw red and, after one of their successive unreasonable acts and decisions (Delian Peevski’s appointment as the head of the State Agency for National Security – author’s note), the people somehow filled the square within 15 minutes and they have been there for 26 days already.

The participation in the protests and the opinions that they are subsiding

The trend is for the number of protesters to increase rather than for the protests to subside. So, I would recommend that they should not rely on this. The faster they orient themselves to resignation rather than to vacation the better.

To the contrary, the opposite is happening. The Ministry of Interior has also gone too far regarding the number of the protesters in order for it to be able to report to the government a figure to "relieve" it. It was talking about hundreds of protesters initially; it reported the highest number only two days ago, when the protesters filled the central avenue from the University to the Pliska hotel. When that space was filled with people, the Ministry of Interior said that the protesters were 3,000 in number which provoked only laughter instead of outrage. Yesterday, they added the reasonable zero to that number and now they are already talking about 30,000 protesters.

The trend is for the number of protesters to increase rather than for the protests to subside. So, I would recommend that they should not rely on this. The faster they orient themselves to resignation rather than to vacation the better. Especially after yesterday's statements of the ambassadors of Germany and France who directly told the government that, the power in Bulgaria could not depend on a clown-fascist.

Bulgaria and its European future

Europe and the people of Bulgaria will not allow the country to exit the European Union. The government itself does not want this to happen. Unfortunately, their unreasonable acts do make sense only if the ultimate goal is for the country to exit the European Union. However, this only illustrates how insane the actions of this cabinet are. Actually, I do not see a threat for Bulgaria’s membership. They will warn us several times and the message will reach the government. There is the view that, following yesterday’s statements of the ambassadors of the two countries which very clearly show how Europe perceives the events in Bulgaria, the members of the government and cabinet are in line at the "slaughterhouse". In the presence of an internal opposition, people in the streets and clear signals from Europe, I do not see any chance for them to survive. I do not think that these warnings are interference in Bulgaria’s internal affairs.

The President

His decision to support the protesters was an expression of the correct interpretation of the signals by a working institution because actually, the current parliament and cabinet are not reasonably functioning institutions. The President must be the unifier of the nation and he told them what we are all telling them. This is what is common sense - to listen and hear what tens of thousands of people tell them every day.

Volen Siderov