Last Sunday, the vast majority of the Serbian people celebrated because they made a big change after 15 years under the rule of Vucic. And I made such an analogy: do we want more of the same – Yotova as a continuation of Radev, or do we want something to change? To a large extent, Bulgarian citizens gave this assessment on Sunday. This was announced to Lili Marinkova in the “FACT“ studio and the “Conversation“ show by lawyer Petar Slavov.
“This huge collapse of trust in “Progressive Bulgaria“ of over 900 thousand votes compared to the parliamentary elections, no matter how much they want to admit it or compare it, is actually quite obvious. To a large extent, this is a protest vote. This is not a vote for another political force, but a protest vote that wanted a change in the model of governance of Bulgaria and was given with hope for Radev's formation. But in the last six months, since April, we have not seen this happening. On the contrary, we see the revival of old practices that were forgotten. What happened with the agitation on the website of the Council of Ministers, as well as the attitude towards journalists by the Council of Ministers, reminded me of an event from my student years. Back then, there was a head of the government press service of Zhan Videnov, who scolded journalists in the same way,“, Slavov also said.
“These analogies are not only in this case. They are not small at all, because we see how the state debt is growing rapidly and how the economic situation of Bulgarian citizens, their social status and their well-being is deteriorating. They tried to suggest that small parties are no longer necessary, but they missed that this is the vote of the citizens. Andrey Gyurov was nominated as a candidate with an initiative committee, supported by political parties, just as Iliana Yotova was also supported. This is not a party vote and calculations like: “Now we will transfer the votes of this party and their candidates to ours, because he will come out publicly and say to support him“. Such a message will not succeed“, the guest also stated.
“When we talk about presidential elections with an initiative committee, broader support is sought, not narrow party support. And that is what Gyurov did. He has largely united the highly dispersed democratic vote around him, with a clear tendency for it to be even more expanded by the runoff - and with centrist, and why not with center-left votes,“ pointed out Petar Slavov.
“Every democratic Bulgarian citizen could support Gyurov, seeing his positions and the way he speaks and approaches the events and the situation in the country. I expect, above all, to see the debate that Ms. Yotova ran away from before the first round and to which she agreed. I hope that Gyurov will also hear us, if he is watching us, and ask a question to Mrs. Yotova, who constantly presents us with the thesis of how she will be a president of peace and how almost everyone who does not support her is a warmonger“, he also said.
“The question that I would ask her is the following: she has already been president for nearly nine months, and before that she was vice president for nine years. How many times during the period in which she was vice president did she suggest that we pick up the phone with Putin, the president of Russia, to tell him: “Oh, man, this is not possible! Let's sit down at the negotiating table and make at least a truce for a start“?
I want to hear her opinion on this issue. Because it is one thing to go out and speak to the media: “I am for peace“. But when you have the relevant opportunities, when you are a representative of a country and have international forums where you can raise this issue, and you don't, for me this is already empty talk“, concluded lawyer Petar Slavov.
See more of the conversation in the VIDEO.