In 1946, the state opened folk shops - Narmag. Decades later, the Council of Ministers created a similar structure - a state chain under the name "Shop for the People". The first location is expected to open in Plovdiv.
"The similarities are unique", believes Vili Lilkov, deputy chairman of the SOS and researcher of the recent past.
The decision of September 1946 has been commented on as the first major event of the republic, as a gesture of the new state towards the people. Now, the creation of the shops for the people follows the decision to accept the country into the eurozone, Lilkov draws parallels, who also finds similarities, including in the management structure of the enterprise.
There are also similarities in the motives of the people's representatives then and now, he pointed out.
"The idea is that these people's shops then would be a corrective to trade in other shops. The communist state had not yet liquidated the market economy. The example is given with the USA - shops with fixed prices."
"At that time, there were reasons to seek solutions in this direction, in this way - the end of the war, imports and exports were greatly shaken and broken, goods of a neat type. A big problem was for people to get soap, gas, shoe polish. "Back then, there was a problem with the supply and the state, in its attempt to direct these fine goods, created these stores," Vili Lilkov said in the program "Before Everyone."
Cooperative stores should not be confused with the people's stores, which were established after 1944, he specified. In his words, "in Narmag, the quality of the goods was always lower and there was a deficit," and these stores were gradually replaced by other types of stores.
The municipal councilor sees in the current creation of people's stores a "populist gesture" by the current government, which he defined as "the current Fatherland Front."
"Even take and analyze the name itself - People's Store and Store for the People. In one case, the Fatherland Front members in that government separated the people from the rich and the speculators, that is, the good people from the bad part of the people. With today's name, it is a wink at the poorer electorate. "
It is interesting what will be the fate of the money that is put into this endeavor, Lilkov commented on the program "Predi visci".
7% of the territory of the Sofia Municipality is occupied by state properties and there we can partner with the state, the mayor pointed out on another hot topic - the sale of state properties with obsolete purposes and the ambition of the Sofia leadership to negotiate for the acquisition of part of them. For this purpose, a letter has been sent to the Council of Ministers and a meeting with the Prime Minister has been requested.
It has been specified quarter by quarter where there is a need for such infrastructure, Lilkov pointed out.
He reminded that the state, represented by the regional governor of Sofia, has not yet transferred about 115 small plots of land from the so-called green ring - the 30-kilometer ring surrounding the city, to which the so-called Green Line project is connected. The Sofia Municipality also needs land for housing construction for the socially disadvantaged, the municipal councilor added.