site.btaAt End-of-Term News Conference, Outgoing President Calls for More Justice in Bulgaria

At End-of-Term News Conference,
Outgoing President Calls
for More Justice in Bulgaria


Sofia, January 18 (BTA) - Outgoing President Rosen Plevneliev and Vice President Margarita Popova gave a joint news conference on Wednesday towards the end of their five-year term in office.

ROSEN PLEVNELIEV

Plevneliev said that urgent action is necessary to ensure more justice in Bulgaria. According to him, justice is the main issue nowadays. He said: "We are all indebted to our people. We are all responsible for the low confidence which the citizens place in the courts, the prosecution service, the institutions. We need solutions and results."

"Internationally, I have been implementing a consistent and firm policy in favour of Bulgaria's active and worthy membership of the EU and NATO," the President said.

He noted further: "As a convinced European, I said clearly at the very beginning that, to me, the EU is not foreign policy, it is my family. And I have acted on that throughout my term - as a President, a convinced democrat and a European."

Plevneliev recalled that he has taken a principled stance in favour of international law, against the unlawful annexation of Crimea by Russia and against the frozen conflicts instigated by Moscow. "I have stated clearly: the fact that I am the first democratically elected Bulgarian president who is persistently and firmly opposed to the Russian president does not make me a 'hawk' by any means - rather, it makes me a politician and a citizen with a stance," he said. According to him, there is a great difference between the Russian President and the Russian people, between the Kremlin and Russia. He said he loves Russia but disapproves of the Russian President's policy. "I have been implementing a consistent policy to promote equality and the rule of law in all aspects of our relations with Russia. I have spared no criticism towards the Russian President for his policy of redistribution of spheres of influence," Plevneliev said.

He believes that Bulgaria's security can only be guaranteed in NATO. Repeating that he is a convinced Euro-Atlantic, he said he has done everything to make sure that Bulgaria is an active member of NATO.

The President recalled his participation in three NATO summits and his convening the Consultative Council on National Security to discuss matters of defence. He stressed his position that the interoperability between the armed forces of Bulgaria and its NATO allies should be a strategic priority.

Plevneliev said he has been pushing for an increase of Bulgaria's defence spending to 2 per cent of GDP, which is a commitment the country has assumed vis-а-vis the collective security of NATO. He noted that there is general consensus about that in Bulgaria. Plevneliev went on to say that a new programme and a plan for the development of the Bulgarian Armed Forces until 2020 have been adopted in accordance with the recommendations of the Consultative Council on National Security. He said Bulgaria will increase its defence spending from 1.12 per cent of GDP in 2014 to 1.6 per cent in 2017 and will continue to raise the ratio gradually until it reaches 2 per cent.

The President listed a number of strategic priorities which he has set for the nation, such as technological innovation, electronic government and electronic voting, modernization and connectivity, a dual system of education, energy efficiency, energy market liberalization and energy diversification.

He said he is proud to be the first Bulgarian president to have initiated a referendum.

The outgoing head of state warned of several risks which will face the country in the coming months.

One such risk, he said, is that Bulgaria may lose its Presidency of the EU in the first half of 2018. "This would be shameful for the nation, but it could happen if Bulgaria worked for division in the EU," he said.

Plevneliev also sees a risk that the results of the upcoming early parliamentary elections in Bulgaria may not be recognized if there are doubts about the integrity and the independence of the caretaker government which will organize the elections.

There is also a risk of another migration wave, he said, noting, however, that Bulgaria has so far handled migration well.

Finally, there is a risk of geopolitical failure if Bulgaria changes its policy of working as an active member of the EU and NATO and becomes an EU periphery instead, Plevneliev warned.

He asked the political parties to lend a helping hand to his successor, Rumen Radev, and work with him to get the country through the next three critical months.

MARGARITA POPOVA

In separate remarks, Vice President Popova implicitly referred to her disagreements with Plevneliev which have kept them on non-speaking terms for much of their tenure. Popova said that, despite the disagreements, "the President and I stepped in together as a tandem on January 22, 2012 and we are stepping out as a tandem on January 22, 2017."

She thanked the presidential administration, saying that they have worked for Bulgaria throughout those five years.

Popova raised the issue about the divisions in society. She also said Bulgaria has a problem with the stability of its political system due to the hatred and aggressiveness which are instilled in society every day.

"We cannot address national tasks unless we overcome the problems of hatred and aggressiveness which are a real consequence of the divisions in society," she commented.

The divisions also create other problems, the Vice President went on to say. "We often speak about a lack of justice or a vanishing sense of justice in the people," she noted. "Division leads to criminalization of the whole society, mafiatization of society. There can be no real justice if we see it only in further structural reforms of the judicial system," said Popova, who is a former justice minister. "We have had enough of structural reforms. Further reforms of this kind will not solve the serious social problems and the problems caused by the divisions in our society. The real questions lie elsewhere."

In light of the forthcoming elections, Popova called on the political parties, the next president and vice president and the future governments to not foment division, because "otherwise we cannot find our place on the global map."

Taking a journalist's question, Popova and Plevneliev expressed different views on the special services. The Vice President voiced her regret that the President lost his grip on the special services, leaving them under the authority of the executive government. For his part, the President commented that the work of the special services is better coordinated now than ever before. He believes that the external intelligence system belongs with the executive government, not the president.

OTHER POLITICIANS

Tsvetan Tsvetanov (GERB): Plevneliev is the Bulgarian President we all must be proud of. In his difficult tenure as President, Plevneliev kept his strongest quality - to champion his own positions and stand equidistant from all political formations. Plevneliev maintained and strengthened the only possible course for Bulgaria - the European path. Plevneliev deserves credit for the visit to Bulgaria of many foreign presidents and for the international trust in this country.

Zhelyu Boichev (BSP-Left Bulgaria): From the start to end of his term, Plevneliev did not succeed in shedding his political dependence on GERB and GERB leader Boyko Borissov personally. The BSP holds that in his term Plevneliev was neither principled nor consistent in his conduct and action. He proved the most un-social president ever. Bulgaria foreign policy in Plevneliev's term was neither balanced nor sovereign. What Plevneliev deserves to be lauded for is that he chose not to run for a second term in office.

Yanko Yankov (Movement for Rights and Freedoms): President Plevneliev was unable to leave his partisan affiliations behind. His institution did not make any particularly important moves on the domestic political scene to generate stability in the country. The Constitution says that the president must be a unifying figure, but is the nation united today? Very often, Plevneliev made Bulgarians feel that their national security was jeopardized. His aggressive conduct cannot be excused by his strong Euro-Atlantic attachments. Bulgaria's role in the Euro-Atlantic community should be positive and constructive, and in certain cases the country should act as a mediator helping to avert conflicts that could endanger the territorial integrity and security of any NATO country.

Georgi Kuychoukov (ABV): Plevneliev was a president of the confrontation. He was against everything that did not meet his narrow political and ideological views. While since 1989 to date Bulgaria has had presidents that embodied the nation and contributed positively to its development, regretfully nothing of the kind can be said about Plevneliev.

Krassimir Karakachanov (Patriotic Front): Plevneliev is the weakest head of State this country has had so far. A fundamental mistake of Plevneliev are his unilateral foreign policy positions.

Naiden Zelenogorski (Reformist Bloc): The Reformist Bloc will table a draft statement to be voted by Parliament to call on the new president to declare to the Bulgarian people and the media that he upholds the European and Euro-Atlantic values of Bulgaria. The statement should also voice that Parliament is against any attempts to jeopardize the civilizational choice of the Bulgarians which has no alternative. The Reformist Bloc is proposing the draft statement in response to the ever tenser international situation, the upcoming snap elections in Bulgaria and the fact that in the coming months President-elect Rumen Radev will bear the whole responsibility for the governance of this country. The Reformist Bloc is concerned about the position Radev expressed in an interview with the French television channel France 24, where he said: "Crimea is Ukrainian, on the Ukrainian map, but de facto it is Russian. We cannot ignore the reality that there is a Russian flag in Ukraine; this is the reality." /VI/PK/VE/ZH