The situation of the protest in front of the National Theater “Ivan Vazov“ was underestimated by law enforcement. Such an opinion was expressed in the program “120 minutes” the mayor of Sofia Vasil Terziev.
„Unfortunately, we saw many ugly scenes – something that should have no place in our city. This is to attack a cultural institution and the people of culture," he commented.
Vasil Terziev confirmed that seven protests have been announced for November 11.
“When an application for a protest comes, we send an inquiry to the competent state authorities whether there is a problem with its implementation and whether there is information about expected problems. If there is no such information, we cannot ban it. From then on, the organizer of the protest must follow the conditions laid down by the law enforcement authorities and take care of the security and safety of the protesters, the capital mayor explained the procedure.
Vasil Terziev expects that tomorrow's protests will be peaceful and civilized, as well as with a good organization of all the bodies that have a bearing on how they will proceed.
„We had a meeting with the SDVR and we are looking very seriously at what is to come tomorrow”, he added.
Vasil Terziev after 365 days mayor of Sofia
„I said from the beginning that this would be a difficult mandate, but as you can see we have not stopped working and everything within my powers, we have made enormous efforts to reform them and solve very deep problems“, said Terziev.
He gave the example of the garbage problem, which is 90% landfilled. He set an example with a number of changes in the green systems, in the parks.
“All the public procurements we have made from scratch, not a single one has been appealed. For each of them, significantly better results were achieved than the number of companies that participated. Prices like competitiveness, higher incomes”, Terziev pointed out.
He said that he would introduce the work that he and his team had done in this one year to the public so that they could see what had been done.
„One of the biggest mistakes we've made is that we get so caught up in solving the city's problems that we don't even understand what the problems are and what's going on. To see only the tip of the iceberg – the few times we miss something as a young administration. We have underestimated how important it is to share about what is being done, to talk to people. Let's be in the studios so that the voice of those who create and change every day can be heard. Thus, a narrative is imposed that nothing is happening”, said Vasil Terziev.