Europe saw Bulgarians throwing eggs with red paint at an EU building, and masked arsonists pushing police officers without shields and helmets, as if they were sent to guard a children's holiday. Isn't vandalism silently tolerated?
Red paint, burning effigies, smashed buildings and injured people - four years of parliamentary representation of “Vazrazhdane” and this is the result. Among their political “trophies” are also the useless law against “gender propaganda”, suspended film screenings, blacklists of teachers and NGOs, attacks in the plenary hall. Plus an attempt at a referendum against the euro, rejected by the parliament and the Constitutional Court.
“Vazrazhdane” does not let go of the leva that keeps them on the forefront in order to mobilize supporters against “national traitors“ and “foreign interests”. The desecration of the building of the EC Permanent Representation in Sofia is their latest action. The second plan of these actions is not to stop with the attempts to sabotage Bulgaria's accession to the eurozone.
With the same rhetoric and furious actions, political relatives of “Vazrazhdane” in Slovakia, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia tried to block their path to the single European currency, but they failed. And after the adoption of the euro, none of the predictions of economic collapse and financial collapse came true.
“Sheriff” from a comic book - or convenient for the authorities?
When the leader Kostadin Kostadinov publicly announces several times “we will set you on fire if necessary, but we will not allow Bulgaria to enter the eurozone”, it seems that the prosecutor's office, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the services (and psychiatric hospitals) do not take him seriously. If threats made by the leader of the third political force in parliament are ignored, then he is seen as a sheriff from an American comic book. And the other hypothesis is that he is silently tolerated by the institutions for his pyromaniac and all kinds of threats, although he has been making noise about them for a long time.
Between 2,500-3,000 supporters of “Vazrazhdane”, most brought in 53 buses from the countryside and led by MPs, set fire to the door and smeared the European Commission (EC) building in Sofia with red paint. Enough for Bulgaria to enter the international news on February 22 with the vandalism of a civil demonstration announced as “peaceful”.
“Vazrazhdane” carried out the Kremlin's order and gave the Russian propaganda channels the opportunity to broadcast footage from a European capital that shows actions against Europe,” commented on bTV former Defense Minister Todor Tagarev. Thus, those trapped in the propaganda box of the Putin regime see with their own eyes how dissatisfied EU citizens are…
Europe also saw Bulgarian demonstrators throw eggs with red paint at a building, and masked arsonists push police officers without shields, helmets and batons, as if they were sent to guard a children's holiday. “Where are the body armor, masks and batons with which they kindly welcomed the protesting youth in 2020?”, asked Maria Cheresheva, chairwoman of the Association of European Journalists (AEJ), on Facebook.
In Bulgaria, as is known, the police beat protesters against the authorities and the Bulgarian Football Union – and lets herself be beaten when the anger is against something related to the EU.
What do the institutions do?
The prosecutor's office does not hear how a political leader publicly scares with arson, but quickly moves against people like the 35-year-old vagrant "The Red Pirate", who threatened to kill magistrates and politicians online (with an unstable mental state, as it turned out). The state prosecution shows permanent condescension towards other actions of "Vazrazhdane" that are offensive to the democratic order, including the dumping of manure in front of the Constitutional Court.
But after Saturday's vandalism, the Sofia District Prosecutor's Office brought five people as defendants, one of whom is a minor. However, the sixth detainee - Ivaylo Chorbov, who participated in the attack on the House of Europe, was released due to his parliamentary immunity. The President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola condemned the vandalism against the House of Europe in Sofia in Platform X. It was done by Bulgarian MEPs, with party positions against the excesses of “Vazrazhdane” came out GERB and SDS, “Yes, Bulgaria” and DSB, “DPS-New Beginning” and Dogan's DPS, etc. In a post on Facebook, the co-chairman of “We continue the change” Kiril Petkov condemned the attack.
Does this unity mean that the opposition and the ruling party will issue a joint declaration - as in May 2011, when the 41st National Assembly condemned the desecration of the Friday prayer in front of the capital's mosque by "Ataka"? Then the deputies united around the opinion that "Ataka" is dangerous for the governance of the country. Now "Vazrazhdane" is preparing to provoke riots again on the first plenary day of the week - February 26, calling for civil disobedience.
If the prosecution requests Chorbov's immunity, the parliament will have to decide, after it has so far refused to do so with other deputies - albeit for different reasons. It is possible that the "defender of freedom" himself, who hid his face with a scarf during the attack on the House of Europe, will show courage and renounce his immunity.
According to DSB, behind the actions of "Vazrazhdane" are the interests of a "hostile foreign power", and on the Bulgarian National Radio, GERB MP Delyan Dobrev went further, calling on the State Agency for "National Security" (DANS) to check how they are financed and even for a sanitary cordon. "DANS employs over 1,000 people. Let them find out who is funding these provocateurs (from “Vazrazhdane”, b.a.).”
United against “Vazrazhdane”?
The parties seem united against “Vazrazhdane”. The ITN calls for the application of “the full severity of the law”, but in September last year, deputies from both parties blocked the rostrum in the plenary hall and prevented significant projects related to the Recovery and Sustainability Plan (RSP) from being voted on. GERB called for the complete isolation of “Vazrazhdane”, after having had a series of joint votes with them so far.
According to the GERB-SDF deputy Denitsa Sacheva, the date for the vandalism was not chosen by chance by a historian like Kostadinov. “It was on February 22, 1932 that the Nazis proposed Hitler as a presidential candidate”. If Kostadinov intends to run for “Dondukov“ 2 next year, he has no chance - even if he sprays red paint all over Bulgaria, burns effigies in the squares and shouts against Europe at the top of his lungs. With this march in the shadow of 1932, he will not get far.
And next year there will be a Bulgarian euro.