The large-scaled protest in Sofia and other major cities has been going on for nearly a month. The civil revolt broke out as a spontaneous reaction against the appointment of the controversial mogul Delyan Peevski for chair of the State Agency for National Security /SANS/. However, the protest grew into a firm demand for the resignation of the Oresharski government, which is supported by the socialists, the Movement for Rights and Freedoms and Ataka, called a government of the oligarchy. President Rosen Plevneliev supported the protest, while German and French Ambassadors to this country Matthias Hopfner and Philippe Autie sent an appeal to the government to listen to the voice of the street. Political scientist Associate Prof. Dr. Antonyi Galabov commented all these signs for Radio Bulgaria:

“This means for sure that the government in this country has reached and crossed a border, beyond which it simply cannot continue this way. This barrier is very clear, but the governing trio takes it as a signal to protect its positions with a barricade. Currently we witness an extremely inadequate reaction by the government. When there is a protest going on, the normal governmental reaction would be opening of all doors and windows for communication with the protesting lot. We witness exactly the opposite – an attempt for barricading the position of power, for compromising the protest and a total lack of understanding that no government can function normally in such an environment. So, for the moment these are still two different horizons with nothing in common between them.”

The protest demands a resignation of the cabinet, is it possible and necessary?

“Of course that it is possible and should happen. This parliament has another mandate for the forming of a government. Therefore there is no direct relation between a resignation of the government and a dismissal of the parliament. i.e. the demand for resignation is absolutely normal and legitimate. Because we are talking here not about a single mistake, as the appointment of Delyan Peevski was presented, but about an overall style of governing, an overall manner for usage and governance of public resources with fewer and fewer things in common with the principles of democracy. So, the demand for the resignation of the Oresharski cabinet is very clear and concrete, without meaning that polls must follow anyway.”

According to the socialists the common stance of the German and French ambassadors to Sofia was interference in our home affairs, is that right?

“The reaction of partnering countries to a partner cannot be interference. At the end of this statement there is a sentence that is very well translated in Bulgarian. It shows that we are related and bound member-states. So, no assessment of our partners for what is going on in this country can be taken as interference in our home affairs, or crossing of diplomatic borders. Obviously there is a problem. It is visible and it was important this stance to be heard, because the national institutions apparently refuse to get into a dialogue.”

Are the Bulgarian protests similar to the ones in South Europe and in Turkey?

“Basically the crisis in Bulgaria is not commensurable with the one in Greece or Spain, Italy, Portugal… Our financial situation is different, we are stable and our domestic and national debts are low. Therefore, this is not a debt crisis, we don’t have foreign creditors that we should think of. Hence the dynamics of the protest in Bulgaria and its specific character. Traditionally South European countries have a higher mobility of civic protests, i.e. people step in the streets much more quickly. And this is seen really as a last resort. Bulgarians go in the street when all their other expectations have failed. The protests in Turkey have their own specifics that shouldn’t be misjudged either. We are talking there about a long process of a gradual transformation of their political culture. A part of the younger generations have been raised mostly in the traditions of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk and are now concerned about the penetration of religious morality in public life that they do not want and accept. Regarding all this, the Bulgarian protest is a classical protest against a government that doesn’t demonstrate any readiness for dialogue and corrections, for taking responsibility on its actions.”

English version: Zhivko Stanchev