English – Podul prieteniei – Мостът на приятелството

Social change in Bulgaria means departing from the logic of transition

An interview for the Iranian Labour News Agency on the demands of the Bulgarian protests, on the similarities and differences with the 2013 anti-oligarhic protests, on the geopolitical and internal importance of the demonstrations and on their influence on social change in Bulgaria.

Kamran Baradaran

The Iranian Labour News Agency, which is a media, affiliated with the House of the Workers (the Iranian labour unions) has published this interview with Vladimir Mitev on 27 September 2020.

Mr. Mitev, the protests in Bulgaria have lasted for more than 75 days. Given the fact that Bulgaria saw the rise of anti-corruption as a lever of social change, what is the main demand of these unrests?

The main demands are two resignations – of the prime minister Boyko Borissov and of the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev. The accusation against them is that under their rule the state has been taken over by the oligarchy. There is also an accusation that state institutions, including the prosecution’s office, have not been serving the public interest, but the interest of a part of the oligarchy, which has been marginalising through the prosecution other parts of this economic elite, formed in the times of transition. In their turn, the accused have been suggesting that parts of the oligarchy, which have been hit in the recent anti-corruption campaign, are behind the protests. It is worthy to remind that the oligarch Vasil Bojkov who fled to Dubai after receiving more than a dozen accusations, was on good terms with Borissov and his business was flourishing until recently.

We build bridges for business between Bulgaria and Romania

A presentation of the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce Bulgaria-Romania, which is based in Sofia and Bucharest

Doru Dragomir

This text was given to the blog The Bridge of Friendship by the head of the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce Bulgaria-Romania Doru Dragomir so that it could be used in a digital book on the Bulgarian-Romanian relations, The book should be published online later this autumn.

The bilateral chamber of commerce Bulgaria-Romania is an organisation, whose main goal is to support the business communities in Romania and in Bulgaria in their desire to find partners in the two countries, in finding mutually complementing packages of offered products and services and in their promotion on a global scale.

The blog “The Bridge of Friendship” celebrates its fifth anniversary

The birth date of the Bulgarian-Romanian site, which you read, is 19 September 2015. What happened in the last five years and what follows?

Vladimir Mitev

In the summer of 2015 I returned to Rousse as an unemployed person, who has doubts it makes sense to be a journalist in Bulgaria. My attempt to become a corporate employee didn’t end with success. I saved the sense of being a journalist with focus international news without even realising I am doing that through a decision with great potential for change – the foundation of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship”.

Doru Dragomir: We promote the Romanian-Bulgarian business in a common package

The logo of the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce Bulgaria-Romania (source: BCCBR)

The president of the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce Bulgaria-Romania has given this interview on the effects ot the COVID-19-generated crisis, on the necessary actions against it, on the chamber’s vision for the development of infrastructure and on the promotion of the bilateral economic relations

Vladimir Mitev

Doru Dragomir is the president of the Bilateral Chamber of Commerce Bulgaria-Romania, which has offices in Sofia and Bucharest. He has worked for more than 20 years in the private sector. He has passed through the great inflation of 1996 in Romania and the international economic crisis, which hit Southeastern Europe in 2008-2009. Dragomir has EMBA at the Asesbuss & Michael J. Coles College in the University Kennesaw State in Georgia, USA in 2007. He also has a degree in Law in Romania.

This chamber of commerce has more than 40 members from both countries, which are active in 25 economic sectors. It is one of the two bilateral chambers with focus upon the Romanian-Bulgarian economic relations.

Posttransition is the subconscious object of Bulgarian protests’ desire

The idea for the overcoming of tranisiton, which has done a lot of social harm, is not clearly articulated. But it existsts on subconscious level. Evidently, there is a long way until the accomplishment of this dream, which could remain just a dream

Vladimir Mitev

This article was published on 7 August 2020 at The Barricade.

It is high time that there was lustration and those who have governed in the times of transition leave, said a Bulgarian protester in Sofia in the beginning of August 2020 before the TV cameras.

Wishful thinking? No, a key to understanding what the Bulgarian protests represent unconsciously. A desire for entering in the post-transition after decades of transition, which has dehumanised both its winners and its losers.

Mutual suspicion hinders the appearance of a post-transition vision in Bulgaria

A live interview with Vladimir Mitev about the escalation of the Bulgarian protests in the last week, about the competition of the two big currents in Bulgarian anti-corruption fight, the parallels with the Romanian fight against corruption, about the growing tensions in Bulgarian society and what could be the positive and the negative scenario of the developments in the autumn

Maria Cernat

This interview took place through live streaming in Facebook on 4 August 2020 at the Baricada Romania page. This transcription was originally published at the Romanian section of the Barricade on 5 August 2020.

Bulgarian protests: battles over anti-corruption?

The article’s screenshot at Open Democracy (photo: The Bridge of Friendship)

It is said that after the protests the division line in Bulgarian society is not between right and left, but between the honest and ”the captive state”. It looks like these protests are a clash of two different concepts for anti-corruption

Vladimir Mitev

This article was published at the Open Democracy site on 27 July 2020.

The Bulgarian protests of the summer of 2020 constitute an unusual eruption of political energy. Bulgaria has been known for its apathy and lack of social mobility, with many of its young people emigrating to the west for at least two decades. Today the younger generation – people in their twenties – are the most visible face of the protests. But the protests are also ‘universal’: a conflation of all kinds of ideologies, ages and geopolitical allegiances can be found represented in the squares of the big cities.

Vladimir Mitev: The Bulgarian transition’s wounds must be cured

A Romanian student made an interview on the Bulgarian transition with the editor of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” for his B.A. thesis

Devid-Raul Ciobanu

Vladimir Mitev (b. 1983) is a Bulgarian journalist and Romanian language speaker. He was born in the city of Rousse. He has degrees in Iranian Studies and International Relations from the University of Sofia. He has worked as an international desk journalist in the weekly magazine “Tema”. In September 2015 he founded the blog “The Bridge of Friendship”, which he develops in Romanian, Bulgarian and other languages on issues from the political, economic and cultural life in Romania, Bulgaria and the world. Starting from 2017 he is the editor-in-chief of the Romanian section of the site “The Barricade”, which is an international progressive platform that unites voices from Central, Southeastern and Eastern Europe. At this moment he is doing a Ph.D. research in Persian literature at the University of Sofia.

This interview is part of the B.A. research “Transition from communism towards democracy in Romania and Bulgaria. Successes, failures, expectations”, which was defended in July 2020 at the Western University in Timişoara by Devid-Raul Ciobanu.

Ion Lixandru: The time has come for a large-scale Bulgarian-Romanian cooperation in infrastructure

Can Romania and Bulgaria cooperate in infrastructure development? (photo: Wikipedia)

The coordinator for Infrastructure and Transport at the Coalition for Romania’s Development has come out publicly with proposals for joint action between Romania and Bulgaria and infrastructure, which he outlines in this interview for “The Bridge of Friendship” blog

Vladimir Mitev

Ion Lixandru was born in Bucharest 61 years ago. He has graduated from the High School of Transport. He was a worker at the construction of the channel Danube – Black Sea in 1977 for three months. He comes from the family of heavy truck drivers (for internal and international transport).

The formula of the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry

The logo of the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry (photo: BRCCI)

The history and the achievements of the Rousse-based Bulgarian-Romanian business organisation

This text was provided to “The Bridge of Friendship” blog by the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It is going to become part of a digital book on the Bulgarian-Romanian relations today.

On 10 September 2003 leading Bulgarian and Romanian companies established the Bulgarian-Romanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Rousse.

The creation of this organisation was initiated by the Rousse-based company “Prista Oil”. The idea was that the Chamber supports and develops the commercial relations between the firms in the two countries, to protect the economic interests of its members before public institutions, to encourage and support the possibilities for cross-border cooperation.