We need a national leader who will inspire us with hope that the lives of Bulgarians are not a curse. The protests of free people show that the people are beginning to wake up and mature for this purpose, says Prof. Kosta Kostov.
DV: How can we protect liberal democracy? Do we still believe in it or are we turning into cynics who "intelligently" observe and comment on its probable decline?
Prof. Kosta Kostov: Liberal democracy needs an awake people. The greatest enemy of liberal democracy is the sleeping population, which does not care about the basic foundations - independent institutions, free media, justice. A large part of the Bulgarian people is not ripe for democracy, let alone a liberal one. My generation spent half its life in a one-party autocracy, and the other half in a quasi-democracy, in which we live today. That is why we do not know the true advantages of liberal democracy, we do not know how to protect it from its enemies.
A people that allows itself to be ruled irresponsibly for decades by uneducated scoundrels and supposedly enlightened scoundrels is not ready for liberal democracy. The defense of civil liberties needs awake young citizens who are aware of their place and role in society, their dignity as free people, who do not allow themselves to be used as an instrument and means for someone else's benefit. The defense of democracy is, after all, the mission of a free citizen who understands his or her social role. If authoritarian violence against the rule of law and the freedom of citizens escalates, if political and managerial cretinism encroaches on the basic civil liberties and values of democracy, when the state ceases to serve the people, the "Exarch" gives way to the "Karaja".
Where there is tyranny and oppression, the recipe is not resignation, nor even respect for the law, but open rebellion, the goal of which is to seize power from the tyrants and restore justice. The time has come for the people to finally stand up to their enemies who are pushing them towards authoritarianism. My hope is in the young, because the old are still waiting for rescuers to come to Orlov Most and do not believe in their own salvation.
DV: What is freedom for you?
If I live according to my conscience, vote according to my conscience, work honestly and do not violate the law. State institutions should protect my constitutional and civil liberties, I should rely on a fair judicial system that does not serve the government, but protects citizens from the government. I should freely express my opinion on social and political processes, without being threatened by repression and violation of my constitutional rights, I should be calm for my family and loved ones. This is how I understand freedom. Today, active citizens are afraid that they may lose their fragile freedom and fall into the clutches of authoritarian rule. But a coward is not one who follows his conscience despite fear.
DV: You rebelled intellectually, civilly and in any case, you always had a position. What did you achieve?
That, similar to Botev, but not exactly - I live and work in such a way that someday my closest people, family and friends, patients and acquaintances will say "I live with dignity". I recall what was said about another Bulgarian poet - Dobri Zhotev, who wished to be remembered with the following words: "He was a lion, a tired lion, who lived his life with honesty and ayryan." You know I'm a vegetarian.
DV: And what have I achieved as a doctor?
For a Bulgarian pulmonologist - everything, even what I never dreamed of.
I was the chairman of the Bulgarian Society of Pulmonary Diseases for two terms (2008-2012), I wrote several valuable monographs, the latest "Guide to Pulmonary Diseases" (2016) was published under my editorship, as editor-in-chief of the INSPIRO magazine I published 82 thematic issues, which are received free of charge by 1000 doctors and their families. For 16 years I managed the best clinic for pulmonary diseases in the country, where I left my residents and associates, educated at a high professional and academic level. I work with a multidisciplinary team at the INSPIRO medical center, recognized in the professional community among the leading centers for pulmonary diseases and sleep medicine. I participated in international conferences and congresses, created professional contacts and friendships all over the world, and contributed to Bulgarian pulmonology going beyond the national framework.
During all this time, I also wrote two books with essays, fragments, travelogues, portraits, over 200 articles, gave at least as many interviews, and acted as a socially engaged person. At some point, I even learned to play the saxophone, and this instrument sounds like a musical accompaniment to my life's inspirations. It's no small feat for a decent life.
DV: Everyone knows that, in addition to jazz, you are also tempted by poetry. What do you think about the seemingly cowardly cultural refusal to remember our great artists of the 20th century?
I don't think anything good. Along with the talentless graphomaniacs of the recent past, who wrote and published in praise of the communist party and did not allow more talented ones to be published, today's generation has no memory of the great Bulgarian artists, poets and writers. Especially poets. As Ivan Dinkov said during his lifetime, the great poets are in the grave, and today's ones are even deeper. Artists from the last century such as Konstantin Konstantinov and Yordan Yovkov and a whole series of famous poets - Konstantin Pavlov, Boris Hristov, Ivan Dinkov, Ivan Peychev and Hristo Fotev have made a huge contribution to my verbal aesthetics. Later, I discovered Ivan Tsanev, Stefan Tsanev, Rumen Leonidov, with whom we have a long-standing friendship. I cannot fail to mention my closeness to Damyan Damyanov, one of my earliest poetic temptations with his love lyrics and magnificent song lyrics.
In recent years, I have discovered Valentina Radinska, Kamelia Kondova, Kalina Kovacheva, worthy successors of the Bulgarian women's poetic tradition begun by Bagryana. Let me also mention the writers who belong to that "lost" generation that I discovered in the last decade - Georgi Bozhinov with the amazing novel "Kalunya-kalya", Nikola Radev with "Kogato Gospod hodeshe po zimeta", Georgi Fotev with "Bulgarian Melancholy", Dimitar Bochev with "Nesaglasnite dumi", the novels of Neda Antonova, especially the two about Levski ("Parvyat seld Boga") and the love of Hristo Botev ("Neghega lybima"), the wise words of Radoslav Ignatov. My great inspiration with a huge influence on my ethics is Tsvetan Todorov, whom I consider the highest level of Bulgarian intellectual thought. His books, dedicated to critical humanism, should be read by every thinking Bulgarian. I am grateful to Prof. Stoyat Atanasov for this late meeting in which he initiated me.
DV: How do you preserve your youthful spirit?
I think I have a karmic attitude. I believe that justice wins and goodness finds a way to return to the virtuous person - to him or his offspring. My Christianity is primary - like that of Christians before religious dogma. I believe in man and his goodness. I am inclined to trust Rousseau that man is born good, but society makes him bad. This is my and our common duty - to protect man from that society that turns him into a barbarian, into an animal without virtues. My spirit is supported by these everyday virtues that include me in the common humanity.
Comment on the current political situation. What do you see now and in the near future?
Our people must come out of their decades of patience. Our national disease is a chronic lack of resistance to the oligarchic-mafia model of state governance. We are failing to unite around a national ideal, formed by our national identity and European values, derived from Christian ones, and to become a people that other peoples speak of with admiration and point to as an example and inspiration. We have failed to rise to the level of our great revivalists, who bequeathed this land to us, so that we can transform it into a sacred place for free people.
Our people still do not understand that the fight for the common is a fight for their own. That in order to live for yourself, you must live for others, to care for the common. The majority is quickly losing memory of political scoundrels and has failed to take advantage of its political liberation, of democratic changes, to move towards an inspired future, simply like that, pro domo sua - in defense of itself, its home and its national interest. So as to erase the shame of several generations who will soon make a century in this ordeal, after those 13 centuries about which Konstantin Pavlov wrote: "thirteen centuries - thirteen brothers. The youngest - a patricide". I am afraid that if we continue in the same way, the patricide will become two.
My hope is in the young, who have not lived in conditions of partocracy, understand the advantages of liberal democracy, which will provide them with personal and economic freedom within the limits of the law, and offer the individual the conditions to become a person with inviolable dignity. With the help of the younger generation, we must not allow the illiberal quasi-democracy to turn into a dictatorship. These young people have filled the squares in recent days and made the rulers tremble with their inspired resistance. They are ahead, and we - the "lost" generation - the veterans of the transition - are behind them.
DV: In addition to being a doctor, you are also a respected intellectual. What do you think is the role of intellectuals today?
The few Bulgarian intellectuals who have not become political potheads are still not enough to reverse the negative trend in society's understanding. More awakened souls are needed. According to Max Weber's definition, I also fall into this group of intelligentsia, because I write and teach. My public role is predetermined - to defend the inalienable dignity of man and his personal and economic freedom, to find like-minded people with whom to affirm the values of democracy. I do it every day - among my relatives, among patients, friends, the medical community, society.
Today we suffer from a deficit of spiritual leaders, the former Renaissance giants like Rakovski are missing, which is why we are ruled by midgets. We judge their capabilities by their fruits, and they are bitter.
DV: Why should we quit smoking? Doesn't this take away our rights?
The right to commit suicide is not in the interest of society, which expects each of its members to be responsible for their own health and the health of others. The entire society pays the price for the irresponsibility of smokers, because the Bulgarian health system is based on solidarity - we all pay health insurance and everyone benefits from it: those who live healthily (healthier) and those who live unhealthily (smokers, drug addicts and alcoholics). This is unfair and violates the rights of some in favor of others. Non-smokers also suffer from the diseases of smokers - for example, passive smokers who are in their environment. Children who copy the vices of their parents suffer the most - a higher percentage of smokers are children of parents who smoke. In my work environment, I work with over 20 doctors and none of them smoke.
DV: Can you describe a future successful Bulgaria, centered on a common national goal? If it is even possible?
Today we need a national leader, a symbolic figure and a national favorite to unite white, blue, green, red and pink, to inspire us with hope that the life of Bulgarians is not a curse, but can be something else - a beautiful, fascinating game in which we are all winners, if we play it honestly and with inspiration, as a team, striving towards a common goal - a prosperous European country with a grateful people. The protests of free people in recent days have shown that the people are beginning to wake up and mature for this purpose.
Bulgaria's national interest is to be an integral part of the European family of free, highly developed countries with a liberal democracy that respects national cultural traditions without the forcible affirmation of cultural phenomena that are not acceptable to the majority. In these countries, there are instruments that are a sure protection from authoritarianism, there is no political corruption, but independent of the political status quo state institutions, media and justice, and legislators who work in the public interest, as well as statesmen who elevate national interest and dignity above all else. Therefore, I call on all free Bulgarians to conscientiously elect their political representatives in the legislative and executive branches, individuals who have proven their integrity, personal and professional dignity.
The next step in this direction is the elections in 2026, including for a president who will unite all Bulgarians, to oppose attempts to turn us into an autocracy with an impure dependence on Russia, in captivity to the political oligarchy that has formed the oligarchic-mafia model of state governance. We have long ceased to be a collection of Asian tribes, but we are a distinct nation of Bulgarians with a European identity and a thousand-year-old culture and writing. We have world-class poets. We have a high standard, but we have lost the memory of it. It is time to regain this high standard.