Every day, Bulgarians protest in different parts of the world in solidarity with their compatriots in the homeland, who have been protesting in the streets for a month demanding the resignation of the government and the chief prosecutor.
Mariana De Meo lives in Vienna, where she teaches pantomime and also provides happiness to the residents of a retirement home. Her grandfather stands out in the family history- he was a doctor who received death sentence for helping the “Goryani”movement who fought against the communist regime. Her father has had long experience of protesting for democracy since the beginning of the Bulgarian transition.
"I am a third generation that continues to protest against the same people, but with different names," she says. “You can see people feel disgusted, as they no longer talk about incomes, about misery. The insult from the fact that low-intelligence people are ruling Bulgaria and are embarrassment to Bulgarians all over the world is shocking.”
When years ago another of our compatriots, Maria Spirova, heard that GERB could become the ruling party, she told her mother: "I would emigrate if Boyko Borissov became prime minister." Today she lives in Oxford, where she has been working as an editor and journalist. She often meets "demotivated and crushed by the system Bulgarians", who have moved to another place where they could practice their profession in a dignified way.
Mariana and Maria protest in Austria and Great Britain together with many other active Bulgarians. Both say that they will continue to take part in the protests until they see the resignations of the government and the chief prosecutor.
"At our protests one can hear much more detailed demands," Maria Spirova adds. “Emigrants say electronic voting is needed as soon as possible. Every time there are parliamentary elections, there is a big battle for opening more polling stations abroad, in front of which long queues form. There are also demands for lustration, for resignation of director of BNT Emil Koshlukov. For us, having access to independent and honest Bulgarian media, through which we can find out what is happening in the country, is of huge importance."
According to the journalist, the prime minister wanted to stay in power at all costs in order to "parcel out and consume the next big European tranche of money". She explains the restrained attitude of Brussels towards what is happening in this country with the fact that as a sovereign state Bulgaria should be able to solve its internal problems on its own.
Bulgarians have already protested in front of the Chancellery in Berlin, calling on Angela Merkel to express a position on why she supports the Bulgarian government, while other compatriots have signaled various diplomatic missions about the situation in the country. A second step is forthcoming - the organization of a major protest of Bulgarians living abroad in front of the headquarters of the European Commission.
"We also plan to send letters from the protesting community of Bulgarians to the diplomatic missions in various European cities," Mariana De Meo adds. "In the letters we write about mafia structures that are growing in Bulgaria, as well as about the demands of protesting Bulgarians."
Bulgarians in London protest every day and will do it once again today. Over the weekend, many other Bulgarians will do the same in the cities they live in - among them the Bulgarians in Mannheim, Boston and Chicago.
English: Alexander Markov
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