< p>All of you are right. All of you are frozen inflexibly in the righteousness of your own truth. You both sound right. But your rightness stems from the fear of losing your own electorate. It does not take into account the general, national, Bulgarian interest in any way. This interest, which is about to bring people out into the squares again! The truth of each of you is about how not to lose territory because the next election is coming. And this is what I call party selfishness. And you all claim that we have to put an end to party selfishness. For us, the end of party selfishness will be when everyone can give, risk, a little of his own to achieve the common. And the common is a union or compound.
This was said in an introductory speech by the co-chairman of the PG of “BSP-UNITED LEFT” Atanas Zafirov at the opening of the 51st National Assembly.
Yes, I agree, the topic of corruption is the absolute limit - the point that cannot be crossed and kept silent. But we, as a society, are constantly offered stories that accuse GERB, PP-DB, and DPS of corruption and wrongdoing. No one is spared. Where is the truth, whose corruption is worse? Has this corruption been proven? How is it proven? It's a crazy spiral where it will turn out that the allegations left no one unsullied. Corruption is a serious problem caused by the downplaying of the role of parliament during the long years of right-wing rule, as well as the building of a political clientele and public opposition.
That is why the topic of the functioning of the judiciary is also the absolute limit that cannot be crossed and kept silent. Because that's where the keepers are. Juvenal does not accidentally ask the question: “Who guards the guardians?” According to the Constitution, including us, we are the ones who also have the task of protecting the guardians, outlining such a normative framework that does not allow them to be attacked by subjective, impure interests.
The topic of scribbling on the constitutional texts, created precisely in order to have democracy and mutual balance and restraint between the authorities by the founding fathers of the modern and democratic Bulgarian state, is also an absolute limit.
The three topics are connected – corruption, judicial system, constitutional framework of power. And I want to ask the question, if we now leave all three of them in an unstable, hanging state, and go to new elections – what exactly will we achieve? Less corruption? A cleaner and more efficient judicial system? Better restraint between the institutions of power after the provisions that guaranteed just that were dropped from the Constitution? And how, if this restraint is not there, will the filter for corruption be applied, the filter for the purity of the judicial system?
Agree – if we stand facing each other, each of his cohort, clanging weapons – and the weapons are the media, the leaked records, the testimony, the accusations, this parliamentary tribune, if you will, there is no way the framework of a clean state and a clean judiciary is going to happen. There is no such thing as the framework in other areas – budget, energy, economy, demography to happen so that we keep what we easily pronounce – the national interest.
There is one more border and point that cannot be crossed - Bulgaria's membership in the EU. And it will not be passed. That's why I don't see the point in us purposefully internally dividing ourselves into big democrats, someone's proxies, Eurasians or Sorosoids. We are Bulgarians. That's it. Let's be understanding, even condescending to the requests of some colleagues here that we're going to get out of the strategic alliances we're in. I think that they are aware that this cannot be done. This is again an electoral game. And it will run out. But such is the game of the die-hard Euro-Atlanticists – they “protect“ from the former, what they know is not actually at risk.
And here I very clearly and categorically want to say to everyone, especially in the right and liberal – BSP is the party that prepared Bulgaria's entry into the EU. The very act of accession, as well as the public tears of joyous affection, however much they may have evoked in Euro-Atlantic politicians at the time, are only a culmination, a ceremony confirming a long effort before. We socialists have made these efforts. And then we demonstrated what a rejection of party selfishness is because we went through the difficult process of confronting anti-sentiment in our own electorate. This is a civilizational choice. Then we got the most successful socialist president and participation in a government that did a lot to build Bulgaria's European profile. And then the door was already wide open for European citizens from GERB, but that has passed.
With the last one, I just wanted to reassure the “big“ after this election – GERB, “Vazrazhdane“, PP-DB, DPS. You won't lose if you take a step back to take three forwards. But these three steps must be clear in advance – crossing out corruption, removing hands from the judicial system and refusing games on the topic of Ukraine. I say again – we cannot be hawks. We are Bulgarians, we need peace in the region and pragmatic interests in it.
The BSP and our coalition partners from the United Left today have no doubts about where Bulgaria belongs. And our firm position that peace should be sought in the conflict in Ukraine, not arming and continuation of the war. And this position is not foreign, it is a civilizational choice – who would say here that war is better than peace? And the search for peace in no way means that peace will not be sought for justice for all those who suffered from the military actions.
But I would like to bring you back to another conflict that is unfolding right under our noses. Don't forget what happened days ago in front of the National Theater and inside the National Theater. Today is the attack on the National Theater and a play, tomorrow it may be an attack on the National Assembly and this, our play here. Do you not feel the great social rift, the great civic energy seeking a channel to burst forth? Because the Bulgarian's energy has not been harnessed in anything productive for a long time – creation in the form of work and economic growth, development in the form of good education and realization. There are huge marginalized communities in our country that exist in their own parallel world of poverty, illiteracy, lack of long-term employment, resentment towards others. There is a large social group of active and successful people who also live in their own territory provided by multinational companies, global business and the cultural environment brought by them. They say that they do not need politics and are ready to continue to tell the state that it does not interest them or even to leave it. Can we blame both? No. The state has been creating conditions for this division to happen for several decades. There is no bridge between them, no community – these people with a common root are strangers to each other.
Where are we – politicians, in this situation – in third place. And this place can very easily become the point to vent the wrath of the other two groups. Because, it turns out, behind us are only the hard electorates, the few, mainly older Bulgarians with a civic conscience inculcated by upbringing, and the people and businesses that politics directly affects. The bad news, colleagues, is that this resource will also run out if we keep going from election to election. This is how we interpret the topic of the legitimacy of this National Assembly. Yes, it may be de jure legitimate, but is it actually representative? And if we decide now to go through elections again, the next one will probably be legitimate de jure, but it will be even less representative?
That is why the advice of the oldest and most turbulent political power, the fifth political power here, is – one step back and three steps forward. I hope it is not too late to break out of your own prisons and limitations and your own truth and seek the common one. Let there be another election, but not now. Let's do them at least when we clean up the electoral law and restore fairness in the distribution of powers. Let's make the rules so that we never again witness the manipulations of the last election – of the shameful trade in votes.
The uncontrolled market has turned citizens into objects of trade - votes, health, school. Let's at least try to limit the disruptive effect of the market. Because the true values of our people are different - compassion, good faith, hard work, patriotism. Our people have withstood vicissitudes precisely because of their hard work, high spiritual culture and cult of education.
In the end - everyone in this hall outside the “BSP-UNITED LEFT” define themselves as right-wing - it is your responsibility to govern, you have enough votes for that!
And let it be known - we are not at the root of the crisis. There is a real danger of new elections, but the left is not part of such a scenario. The Bulgarian left remains a significant political factor, these elections proved it. And united and united is not afraid of any scenarios!
Main task of the parliamentary group of “BSP-UNITED LEFT” will be a return of citizens' trust in the state and institutions. Against disintegration we will oppose the strength of our unity. To the dead end of right-liberal experiments we oppose our left-wing alternative. In the face of timelessness and stagnation, we have our legislative program, containing ready-made answers to society's expectations. We are ready to work honestly and responsibly in the name of the social idea and social democracy!
In any case, probably this National Assembly will also pass, not quite realizing the meaning of the inscription above our heads. But even after us, the Union will continue to be the force.