Metodi Lalov in front of FACTS: Peevski is the political son of Dogan , and Dogan is the father of political corruption, DPS sent letters to the other political parties in the parliament - without “Revival”, in connection with the second mandate and are waiting until the end of the day today for answers. New elections, cabinet with the second or third term? What's happening on the political scene… Lawyer and public figure Metodi Lalov spoke to FACTS.
- Mr. Lalov, how do you personify the word “politics“ in Bulgaria at the moment?
- At the moment, unfortunately, I do not personify this word with people's decisions for the benefit of society. In politics, we see personal insults, unacceptable behavior – arrogant, insulting. Political forces are currently entangled only in their personal relationships. Over the years, especially in recent years, political leaders have had extremely harsh words for each other. Thus, it is absolutely impossible to make politics and have points of contact. Public speaking at times boils down to denigrating a political opponent and turning him into an enemy.
This led to these people not being able to look at each other.
Who should make politics… Sometimes it is valuable in politics to know who is talking, who is doing something given their past behavior in order to accept whether we can vote them confidence. But today that talk has gone beyond normal limits and look how far we've taken it. At the moment, we are in an absolute impossibility for any of the political forces represented in parliament to have anything in common with any other, since each has denied the other on all possible subjects.
- Where does the state remain in all this work, where does Bulgaria remain?
- Politicians are not interested in this. Political parties have shrunk after the last election to their most hardened cores. These hard cores produce the same political representatives and their inner circle.
And then these leaders and the inner circle start thinking about their own survival.
They are always in the parliament, they are always in power, they will always appoint their relatives to good government positions and there is no danger for them. They don't do politics to arrive at any decisions. Why don't we talk about health care, we don't talk about education, we don't talk about an adequate increase in incomes, we don't talk about protecting the rights of citizens. We only hear about personal attacks.
- Peevski or Dogan – what is the choice of dispatchers…
- This choice - as the dispatchers themselves say, is impossible. Peevski is the political son of Dogan, and Dogan - according to him, is the father of political corruption in our country. This person was telling us about the hoops of companies around DPS…
- And who distributes the portions…
- Exactly. In the end, Dogan, through his continuation, Peevski, whom he created, whom he elevated to co-chairman, although he later apparently regretted it, to put another co-chairman in the party in the person of Dzhevjet Chakarov, whom he called a phenomenon, whom he left for months as chairman and of the DPS parliamentary group to debate, created a conflict.
Peevski deribes because that's what he does - he insults both opponents and relatives.
And here is the choice we came to. If Peevski loses to Dogan, we will have the same corruption again. If Peevski beats Dogan, I'll have the same addictions again. There are no winners here. But it is clear that the voters, activists, sympathizers of DPS are placed in such dependencies in places that they are forced to serve, but without being able to reject the dependencies.
- What kind of metamorphosis is PP-DB going through to say that they can hold talks with “Revival”. Somehow the third mandate is turning into a fixidea that looks like a panacea and will heal Bulgaria?
- I go back to the beginning of the conversation that these people are just wondering how to survive. They do not act on principle. As before the “assembly”, during the “assembly”, and now they do not act in principle. If they fulfilled their public requests and did not change them often, now they would not have to wonder how to survive, how to get hold of power. We heard in the previous parliaments how they told us that there should be stability in the country and that they should stay in the parliament and work. Let's also remember the time when they were out of parliament. From “Democratic Bulgaria” back then we were told that whatever election cycle we enter, it is always better than the tranquility of corruption. And now they wonder what to do. We had the "Dogan-sarai" model, then we had the "Borisov" model, then we abandoned the "Borisov" model to talk about the "Peevski" model. Dogan and Borisov have been politicians for decades, and Peevski was born as a politician in recent years, but in any case he is the lesser evil in politics. Until a few years ago, Peevski was in the corporate world, in the external sector. He cut a lot of businesses, because I have not heard of any business around Peevski that he created, developed and prospered. He cuts businesses.
Obviously he will do the same with DPS because he treats the party as a political corporation.
PP-DB are in an extremely difficult situation and are just struggling to survive. And that's because of its rejection from previous requests. They will suffer even more damage because Kiril Petkov and Hristo Ivanov rose on the political stage with the request to overcome the “Borisov“ model, of the “Sarai“ model that Borisov is for prison. Even Kiril Petkov tried this rather inadequately and made him a martyr. Wasn't Petkov saying that the ministers in the “assembly” are on PP-DB, and then it turned out – when outrages began to be revealed, that some of the ministers were not of the PP-DB and began to disown them. And they brought it to the point where they are offering us some "technical governments".
- This is my next question. PP does not accept DSB's proposal for a “technical cabinet”. At all PP without DB what is…
- Obviously, internal coalition differences are already emerging. These are the things I was talking about. In the PP-DB, there are no written and established mechanisms, adopted by the bodies of the respective parties and coalitions, to make decisions and defend their words with arguments.
We see now that everyone is playing for their rug.
The PP declared themselves the opposition, the DSB is playing it with a “technical government”, and “Yes, Bulgaria” are something that is in the middle. I don't think they'll be able to get him anywhere that way. They don't speak in sync. In principle, there is no problem with differences, but for these differences there must be mechanisms to overcome them. PP-DB resembles a family in which everyone lives for himself, does not share common values and does not find a mechanism for solving problems.
At some point this family will fall apart.
So that this does not happen now, PP-DB unites them only this political kelepir. The PP-DB talked about how they would upset the "Borisov" model, and they stuck to it. For decades, Borisov, Peevski and Dogan have been building GERB and DPS as client organizations. Changes for the benefit of society cannot be made with them. We have warned the people, who at least claim to belong to the democratic community, that Borisov and Peevski will allow reforms to the extent that they are safe for them, and this means to the extent that the socio-political environment and corruption cannot be significantly changed to continue to be the main model.
- How feasible is the cabinet option with the second or third term…
- I can't guess, because because of this unprincipledness, we can't judge by any facts from which to draw conclusions. And conclusions are drawn on facts. Now we have the behavior of people who do not keep their word, so it is difficult to make predictions. It seems to me that there will be no possibility to form the cabinet with the third mandate. The topic of geopolitical choice is brought up again. Manol Peykov posts on this topic that the geopolitical choice of Bulgaria is whether to look to the East, or to be turned towards our North Atlantic partners, but to live in a corrupt society. And somehow the thesis is imposed on us that it is better to live in a corrupt society, but not to be turned towards Russia. But I know that where there is corruption, the interests of the state - both domestically and geopolitically - are not protected.
The corrupt will sell the state in both domestic and foreign policy terms.
Excuse me, is GERB a Euro-Atlantic party!? Are Borisov and Peevski Euro-Atlantic... Borisov, during whose time was built "Turkish Stream", which is one of the main reasons for starting the war in Ukraine, because Putin already had an alternative route for the transfer of gas outside Ukraine. The problem is that all that is happening - both the corruption and our geopolitical maneuvering - is happening before the eyes of our European and American partners. The corruption and venality of Borisov and Peevski is obvious. Peevski is recognized to be corrupt, to be dangerous for democracy in the USA, and this is the reason why he was included in the “Magnitsky“ list.
- But ambassadors meet with him…
- This is the problem, that not a single foreign ambassador or political representative showed intolerance, did not show or give a request that they will not enter into partnership relations with such people. Someone will say: “Yes, but these are internal problems and we will not fix them for you foreigners…“ You don't fix them for us, but dear partners, don't prevent us from fixing them, don't legitimize them, don't accept Borisov, Peevski, Geshev, Tsatsarov, etc. on various forums, don't give them awards, because that's how they oppose our society. They say: “What are you criticizing us after we are getting international recognition”. This is absurd.
- What does Bulgaria need?
- From some straightforward, quite ordinary and determined politicians who, when they give their word and say something, that thing should be respected. Yes, circumstances in life, in society, in politics change. Politics is not some frozen activity. Of course, this flexibility is tolerable up to the limits of the principles and to the given definite requests. When a politician wants to change his request, he stands for election again. But he expressed his new requests before the elections. Bulgarian politics increasingly needs such requests. There is also a need for written agreements in advance that are spelled out with detailed and clear decision-making and control mechanisms. Signed in public, announced, if necessary even certified by a notary, etc., so that they would not later be dismissed from their signatures as having been forged. In recent days, we have been hearing about the DPS and the letters to the embassies. This is what we need – from principled people, because otherwise we will not move an iota forward. We are in an incredible crisis.