The first meeting between Bulgarian ex-Presidents was held in Sofia at the initiative of the current Bulgarian President Rossen Plevneliev. Along with President Plevneliev, the first president elected after the democratic changes in 1989 Zheliu Zhelev and Presidents Petar Stoyanov (1997-2002) and Georgi Parvanov (2002-2012) attended the meeting.

According to President Plevneliev the talks between the four Bulgarian Presidents were entirely informal, but they discussed issues regarding the history of the Bulgarian Presidential Institution as well as problems concerning the future of Bulgaria. The idea of President Plevneliev is to turn these meetings into tradition.  These meetings will be held once a year on January 22 which is the date when the new Bulgarian President steps into office. After the meeting Rossen Plevneliev said that they do not intend to turn this summit into a Presidential council. They will only exchange experience and contacts for the benefit of Bulgaria.

“This is not a secret center of authority and we do not have the ambition to take secret decisions. We have the adjustment to work in favor of the society and the state system. We are people with own opinion who realize that sometimes the society is divided into groups which oppose to each other and that sometimes the country faces problems regarding the legitimacy of the long term priorities and the social causes. Our main idea is to meet once a year and have talks as we all care about Bulgaria and want to contribute to its development. Every Bulgarian President is important for these meetings. We can all be very useful for Bulgaria’s foreign policy as each one of us has many contacts abroad, has his own vision and strong sides. Undoubtedly, President Parvanov used the experience of the first two Presidents Stoyanov and Zhelev”, says Rossen Plevneliev.

According to President Plevneliev all Bulgarian heads of state have common causes and priorities despite all ideological and political differences between them and these common goals should be used for the public well-being. Thus, they can show succession and human attitude towards the social problems.

“The history of the Presidential institution is important as well and the Presidents could meet at future forums or events, organized by Bulgarian non-governmental organizations, public institutions, the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences”, says President Plevneliev. In his words, they could meet to discuss strategic issues which regard the future of the whole nation. The Bulgarian Christmas campaign, which collects money for the medical treatment of Bulgarian children, is a good sign that the Bulgarian Presidents could unite under common causes to the benefit of the charity in Bulgaria. According to all four Presidents, this initiative has turned into an institution and will continue to develop.

Rossen Plevneliev is positive that every Bulgarian President has contributed a lot to the positive development of the state, worked hard for the well-being of his nation and also made certain mistakes and he will probably do so during his mandate. However, he is confident that the experience they shared during the first meeting is very important. He also accentuated on the following fact:

“We do not share the same view about all issues. We differ in many aspects. However, this is the message the Bulgarian President send to society. Each one of us has his own battles and priorities. Sometimes they are different, sometimes they even oppose to each other, but we have also common causes which could unite us and make us look for common decisions”, concluded President Plevneliev.

Zheliu Zhelev thanked for this good initiative on behalf of all former Bulgarian Presidents and reminded that this idea was born long time ago, but somehow it remained unrealized in the past. Here is what else he said for RB:

“This is a very reasonable idea as we have the chance to exchange huge experience and contacts with the new Bulgarian President. Each one of us has his contacts abroad and it would be irrational not to use these opportunities. The American experience shows that the former US heads of state could be very beneficial. Many of them are sent to various foreign missions abroad, thus doing huge work in the political, diplomatic and the military fields”, said President Zhelev and concluded that these informal meetings would turn into a permanent and useful tradition.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov