35 years later, democracy in Bulgaria is again in danger. This was stated to BNR by Parvan Simeonov, "Gallup International Balkan".
So much has passed since the first democratic civil rally in our country.
I have not seen 62% of Bulgarians say that the elections will not be free and fair, Parvanov also pointed out in the program "Before all".
Even when negotiating the Bulgarian transition at the Round Table, there was no clarity about the economic model. Real denationalization was delayed for 7-8 years. Until the moment when it no longer made sense, because Bulgaria's industry had devalued. No one had warned the Bulgarians that, in addition to democracy, we would also build capitalism. At the time, we imagined that now we would catch up with everything that was once only sold at Korekom. Bulgarian society was naive enough not to realize this.
"We have more and more calls to change the system of competing parties because it is not working. I don't believe in sudden movements. Along the way of sudden movements, we will collect more disappointments. The party system needs to be updated through new players. But to create a new political system, new rules of the game, that is naive.
New rules in the Electoral Code make sense to write, but those that affect the procedure that defends the vote, not rules that change the essence of voting. Ballots need to be counted beyond the reach of the sectional committees. There should be less paper in the whole vote. It is obvious that the machine works better in our conditions. We have ghettoized parts of Bulgaria".
The new player will come from within the presidency, predicts Parvan Simeonov.
"Maybe the president himself. The big question is whether he will give in to these suggestions to try to reboot the system himself somehow. However, the president has so far shown that he is more of a systematic person. Our country needs systematicity, not revolution".
Parvanov also explained that the transition in our country has long been over.
"Bulgaria has its liberal democracy, it has its market economy, it is a member of NATO and the EU. We are no longer talking about a transition, but about the quality of democracy in our country. Bulgaria has all these things, but it seems to me that the Bulgarians are not satisfied.
Bulgarian society is not satisfied for a few simple reasons. There is a serious social stratification that breeds distrust in the system. Add in the lost national program. You will see a society that can barely stand itself.
Although we have gained from the transition, we feel like one of the biggest losers. This is one of the reasons why we question our Western belonging, question democracy and think nostalgically of those times. This is a self-inflicted trauma and it is characteristic of Bulgarian society not only now. We cycle, that's the problem.