"I am proud to see so many patriots on Shipka on our National Day. Here, on the peak crowned with eternal glory, the heroism of our volunteer fighters, standing side by side with the soldiers of the army of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, paved the way to Bulgaria's freedom," President Rumen Radev said in his speech on the Shipka Peak on the occasion of the National Day. "This year, we will not hide it, is different from the others and that is why I am here to thank you for uniting to protect our national holiday from attacks. The light of your pure thoughts has dispelled the sticky political fog from the peaks of Bulgaria's past," he added. 

"There is no other place that so symbolically embodies the national pride, the national ideal, the devotion of Bulgarians to sacrifice their lives for the liberation of our homeland. This peak is high, this peak is the Bulgarian Thermopylae, this peak wipes the shame from Bulgaria's forehead," said National Assembly Speaker Rosen Zhelyazkov, who, unlike the president, was booed by the crowd.