Galery

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Some commentators believe that the protests are subsiding. How do you see their future?

I am not sure that the protests are subsiding. Unfortunately, we are witnessing a "war of interpretations" as to what is happening in the country. It is passing through a quantitative underestimation of the number of protestors as well.

To the contrary, in my opinion, the more this protest continues, the more sustainable it will become. It is not necessary to perceive this sustainability as a three-month presence of people in the square without interruption. However, this sense of intensifying mutual civil solidarity that we are witnessing carries the guarantees I have already mentioned.

I think that what has been happening in recent days is essential, namely the increasing support for the protests in the country by the people who are not currently living in Bulgaria, in fact the number of the cities and people declaring their support for the protests has increased in just a few days. I think that this is a very important development because it will be harder for the people who are protesting at present to achieve their goals without the support and participation of the people who are living and working outside the country.

So, I do not think that the protests are languishing and that they will stop.

Of course, they cannot go on forever and this is clear to everyone. Anyway, whether they achieve their immediate political goal related to the resignation of the government or not, the fact that it has been paralyzed by the protests for such a long time portends its political inability to govern for a long period of time.

What is the alternative to the government of Bulgaria in the event of early elections in your opinion?

The question of "what comes next" is often being raised in Bulgaria at present. I think that it prevents a lot of people from going out in the streets. Unfortunately, its answer may not be simple as we really are caught in a political system in which there is a serious distrust in almost all existing political parties.

From this point of view, the longer-term change will come by changing not only the actors in the political system but also the culture and the manner in which they govern. Because the reality is that we can hardly expect a dramatic reconfiguration of the party system only by means of these protests and only with the fall of this government.

Actually, this is about a political change that, if things evolve properly, should happen in a few steps. These of course include the emergence of new political characters. However, in the more immediate term, the guarantees as regards the improvement of the situation of the country are not associated with the rapid and sudden emergence of some new parties, "white swallows", but with the change in the manner of ruling as a result of this constant public pressure.

The right political spectrum is not presented in the Bulgarian Parliament, although the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party considers itself a right-wing party. Do you see something happening in the right political space or a new idea that is evolving and that can change the manner and culture of ruling?
 
I do not doubt that, because of the protests, a more unified right political subject will appear. At this stage, I think that it is too early to predict whether it will ultimately be a coalition between political parties or if a new single political subject will be created. There are different opinions on this issue, including among the parties which are involved in this discussion.

To predict what will happen, we must realize that these parties will face an unresolved dilemma. And it is related to whether they are organizing themselves as a right political subject or as political parties with different ideological profiles which are just coalescing around the idea for a new type of politics.

So far, we have no answer to this question because the negotiations are more like negotiations between parties which want to declare a new manner of doing politics and they are not so much an expression of their will to necessarily be the basis of a single political subject.

This is because many people have doubts that the Green party and Meglena Kuneva’s party can be the basis of a right subject. I expect that, at the end of this process, regardless of its composition, we will have a new right-wing configuration that will look different from what we had in the last elections.

How would you comment on the division which some are trying to make between the people who are protesting at present and those who protested in February?