SPEECHES AND STATEMENTS

Address of President Rumen Radev to the People

Dear compatriots,

For three years I have been calling on the government to be working in a responsible and efficient manner to serve the interest of the Bulgarian citizens. I have not been doing so as a political opponent but as Head of State, thinking and caring about Bulgaria’s future. Unfortunately, this does not happen.

Currently we are witnessing a severe crisis in the governance at all levels.

The lack of a will for reforms and for fighting corruption and wasteful practices, systematically breaching law and morale led Bulgaria to the paralysis of whole social systems and institutions without analogue in the history of the Bulgarian transition.

The residents of Pernik and whole villages from the region have been left without water, for which the Cabinet refuses to assume the political responsibility.

The investigation of foreign media and institutions shed light on the scattering throughout the whole country and the burning of foreign trash in our waste-treatment facilities, which pollutes the air and our nature. Bulgaria is not a dumping ground and nobody has the right to stake the Bulgarians’ health so that a small number of businessmen with government protection can gain profit.

The Cabinet quietly pushes for reform of the Currency Board, for the meaning and grounds of which the Bulgarians expected clear explanations.

Legislation is becoming a hostage of lobbyist interests, and poverty and inequality are deepening.

Even national sovereignty is traded off for the sake of personal political survival.

Institutions, called upon to be independent and defend law, breach it in an ostentatious manner, turning themselves into an instrument of power. State authorities allow themselves to frighten those that disagree and protest. What we observe is an organized offensive against civil freedoms.

This government and governance leads to the disintegration of statehood and deprives us of our future as a nation.

An end must be put to all this.

As of today, I am officially withdrawing my confidence in the government, which does not serve the interest of the Bulgarian citizens and bears the responsibility for the severe crisis in our society.

Dear compatriots,

Today the division is not between left-wing and right-wing, between the capital and the province, but between the vicious power-holders and the millions of respectable Bulgarians. I am next to you in the fight to defend our rights. Bulgaria’s future is in it being a free European country, in which the citizens are not afraid of repressions but rely on law and morale.

This is the future of the brave and worthy Bulgarians! Of the young and educated, of the elderly, honest and work-worn, of all of us that will revive our homeland. Let us unite to ensure justice and statehood. For the well-being of Bulgaria!