Today is a day of mourning for the lives lost in the ridiculous tragedy in Kocani.
Corruption kills, this was seen both in North Macedonia and in Serbia. There is no way that our Balkan existence can continue to be associated with crises, losses of human lives, because as societies we cannot fight corruption radically. Corruption kills and corruption is Putin's main tool for influence.
This was published on his Facebook page by the co-chair of "We continue the change" Kiril Petkov. Here are more of his words:
Bulgaria is at a historic moment. For the first time in years, we are facing the risk of which side of the "napkin" one of the "great powers" will try to put us on. At the same time, the old elites of the Balkans, the symbols of corruption, are trying to convince us that they are the guarantor that we will not go to Putin. They call on us to close our eyes to their corruption, because they were the guarantor that we would not deviate from Europe.
While we, the majority of citizens with pro-European values, are wandering about which problem is more important to solve, in the end we will find ourselves between the two chairs on the ground. We will neither have fought corruption nor have we stood at the heart of Europe. I say this, aware of our own mistakes. We from the PP, in our personal capacity, were absolutely orthodox against corruption and indeed each of us stood behind our words for zero corruption, regardless of who else was in government with us. It was a mistake, however, despite the success with Schengen, that we had public actions with corrupt politicians.
As a society, it is time to stop this wandering about which is the greater evil and to say clearly: both are unacceptable compromises for a European Bulgaria. Neither should Bulgaria enter Putin's zone of influence in the Balkans, nor should we turn a blind eye to the corruption that kills. There is no stronger day than today's day of mourning when we can declare this.
"We continue the change" will fight to bring Bulgaria into the heart of Europe, to be part of the Eurozone, to be an important part of European defense. However, we will not turn a blind eye to politicians who still want to steal a debt of 7 billion leva through state-owned enterprises and the Bulgarian National Bank - where it is easiest to steal from. The so-called political dilemma has only one answer: we are fighting to be in the heart of Europe and we are fighting against corruption! That's it!