An interview with the county councilor from England Alexandra Bulat, who is a researcher and activist on migration issues and from now on is also a local politician, who works in an area of Great Britain that is pro-European and pro-migration
Vladimir Mitev
Alexandra Bulat is a county councilor for Cambridgeshire, England. She is also a research assistant at the University of Strathclyde. She also works for the3million NGO, which campaigns for the rights of EU citizens living in the UK. There she is co-manager of a network of young Europeans.
This article was published on 21 May 2021 on the Romanian section of the site “The Barricade”.
Bulgarian-Russian relations are really at a low point. However, this is not so much due to internal dynamics as to the international context in which the two countries find themselves
A part of the poster of the film “Collective” (source: Wikipedia Commons, Colectiv)
“Collective” is a film in which the Bulgarian viewer will recognize his own reality at every minute
Anita Dimitrova
This article was published on 30 April 2021 on the website of the newspaper “Sega” and is republished with the consent of the media.The subtitle is changed by the blog.
“Collective” is not a new film – it premiered in September 2019 at the Venice Film Festival. But it continues to attract the attention of academies and travels to viewers around the world – most recently with its two Oscar nominations, the first such success for a Romanian film in history, although neighboring cinema has scored points at major European festivals. Palme d’Or, Golden Bear, etc.).
In Bulgaria, “Collective” was screened at the 24th “Sofia Film Fest”, which passed with a delay and in silence due to the pandemic, and HBO Go subscribers can watch it at any time at home. The European Parliament now allows those who do not have HBO to watch it for free on the Internet until May 9 – as one of the three nominees for the LUX Prize. For the first time, it will be awarded not only by the votes of MEPs, but also to the public throughout the EU. And I highly recommend that it be seen – because it answers not only the internal question for the cultural community “why don’t we have such films”, but also the bigger question “how do we live and why do we allow this to happen”.
History of the efforts of Bulgaria and Romania for transport interconnection over the river
Aneta Mihaylova
Institute of Balkan Studies with Center for Thracology – Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
An earlier version of this article was presented at the joint Bulgarian-Romanian historical commission, whose secretary from the Bulgarian side is the author. The text was given exclusively to the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” and will become a part of a digital book on Bulgarian-Romanian political relations from 1878 until today.
The idea of building a bridge over the Danube, connecting Bulgaria and Romania has a long history and, although with varying intensity, it has been permanently present in the bilateral relations from the end of the 19th to the present day. If we are not to go so much back to the time of Constantine the Great, when the first bridge over the Danube connecting the people on both sides of the river, but focus on more modern times, the issue was raised during the time of Ottoman rule and after the Crimean War (1853-56) it became an integral part of the diplomacy and politics in the Balkans and a number of European countries. The construction of a bridge over the Danube was associated with the first plans for railway construction in the Ottoman Empire and the implementation of a land connection between Western and Central Europe to the Balkan Peninsula with access to the Aegean Sea. In 1881, only three years after the Liberation of Bulgaria, the first contacts were established between the Bulgarian principality and Romania, where the possibility of building a bridge over the Danube was discussed. Since then, this issue has become one of the constant topics in the relations between the two neighboring countries, but it has turned out to be very difficult to solve and it takes more than seven decades for this idea to be realized in practice. Another six decades were to pass before a second bridge was built over the Danube, connecting the Bulgarian and Romanian riverbanks. Negotiations for the construction of new bridges between the two countries continue to this day, and the prospects for success are not very clear.
The media situation in Bulgaria is undoubtedly disheartening – but the usual reflections about the Reporters Without Borders freedom of speech ranking do not address some of the biggest threats to journalism
Philip Burov
This article was published on 30 April 2021 at the English section of the site “The Barricade”.
I could explain endlessly how desperate and hopeless the situation with the media in Bulgaria is, and how more and more often I regret that I took up the profession of journalism at all. That is why I am largely inclined to accept the grim findings in the Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom index, in which our country has been given an alarming 112th place this year. Excluding my objections to the presentation of certain oligarchic circles as selfless defenders of free journalism, the reports on Bulgaria present objective problems for the media environment – in fact, I would say that there are many more examples that could be added, even without going to the various attempts to pressure or slander< the media of which I am a part.
Ruse Summer Free Tour will be guiding its guests for sixth consecutive year (source: Ruse Summer Free Tour)
This text is a press release of Ruse Summer Free Tour.
The free walking tours in Rousse, known as Ruse Summer Free Tour, launch on 1 May 2021 for a sixth consecutive summer in a row. The tours are intended to both Bulgarian and foreign guests as well as the residents of Rousse, and their route passes by the most popular buildings and places in the central parts of the city.
As with the previous three seasons, this year too the tours will take place every Saturday from May to September at 6:00PM from the Statue of Liberty where professionals and enthusiasts from the tourist industry in the region will tell the stories and city legends behind the places visitors will go by during the tours.
The member states of the Three Seas Initiative (source: Jacbourg, CC BY-SA 4.0)
The Bulgarian foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva met with the Romanian ambassador in Sofia Brânduşa Predescu
This text is based on a press release by the Bulgarian ministry of foreign affairs, sent out to media on 14 April 2021.
The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva met with the newly appointed Ambassador of Romania to Bulgaria Brânduşa Predescu, with whom they discussed cooperation between the two countries within the framework of the Three Seas Initiative. The two interlocutors agreed that Bulgaria and Romania should work actively to attract foreign investors to the region.
Interviews of the Bulgarian National Radio with the Romanian political scientist Sorin Ioniţă and with the Bulgarian foreign policy analyst Lyubomir Kyuchukov about the changing balance between technocrats and populists in the Bulgarian politics, about the possible effect of the elections on the Bulgarian-Macedonian relations and the Russian-Ukrainian conflict
Vladimir Mitev
In its edition of 12 April 2021, the program “Something More” on the program “Horizon” on the Bulgarian National Radio sought an answer to the question of what Bulgarian politics looks like when viewed from the outside. There were two comments on the issue: of the Romanian political scientist Sorin Ioniţă (in a conversation with Vladimir Mitev) and of the Bulgarian foreign policy expert Lyubomir Kyuchukov (in a conversation with Georgi Markov).
The founder of the “Bridge of Friendship” blog gave an interview to the podcast of the Konrad Adenauer Romania Foundation about the rule of law in Bulgaria and Bulgarian-Romanian relations
Vladimir Mitev
Vladimir Mitev was invited as a guest on the podcast Rule of Law Rules of the Konrad Adenauer Romania Foundation. In the episode released on April 7, 2021, Vladimir spoke about the rule of law in Bulgaria, the over-personalized political system (under the aegis of Prime Minister Boyko Borissov), the prosecution, which is in question, and public sentiment about the rule of law and anti-corruption discourse. In addition, Vladimir spoke about the Cooperation and Verification Mechanism and how it could influence Bulgarian-Romanian relations by allowing the two countries to have their own initiative internationally.
Radu Stochita is an author of a popular column on trade union struggles in Romania on the website Baricada România and maintains a Telegram channel for workers struggles in Romania and around the world (source: The Barricade)
The dissatisfaction of the transport workers exacerbated the conflict between the right-wing government of Florin Cîţu and the labour unions
Vladimir Mitev
Romanian Prime Minister Florin Cîţu is seeking to sanction protesters in the Bucharest metro on Friday, which he described as “illegal”, according to the Ziare website. The Prime Minister said he would be looking for culprits to repair the damage, state institutions to help citizens and companies to recover the losses, and the payment of protesters be reduced by one day. Labour union leaders said on Friday that their dissatisfaction was due to a possible shortage of staff and risk at salary cuts. Transport Minister Cătălin Drulă however believes that the real reason for starting the protests are the economic interests related to a trade union company, with labour union being run by former member of parliament from the Social Democratic Party Ion Radoi. The labour union company manages retail spaces in the subway.
To learn more about the protest and what follows after that, the Bulgarian National Radio approached Radu Stochiţă. He is a student and author of a popular column on trade union struggles in Romania on the website Baricada România. He also maintains a Telegram channel for workers’ struggles in Romania and around the world. The interview was broadcast and published on the BNR website on March 29, 2021.
