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[Music]
[Applause]
i
i kindly welcome you to the talk of
bulgaria protest 2020
which is held by em they are joined by
rosen
a journalist um who's
very interested in the restrictions
around media freedom
in bulgaria sabina
hilaial who is an
assistant professor and
does a science on uh the implications
of the transitions after
the communist era and
uh raqqa is a lawyer
and comments on uh
the judiciary situation in bulgaria
um a nice welcome
and thank you please
thank you okay now's the time actually i
guess sorry
so um let's go
if if something happens but it doesn't
no it's all right you're wrong um no i'm
just trying to share my screen but right
now um
it's not really responding um
let me let me try again
all right i'll be right back just two
seconds
so a very nice start right i'm sorry
let's see if that happens yes right okay
would you like someone from us to try
and share your
your presentation no
um it doesn't
matter
we lost her
you're muted rosen
i mean that someone else could could
start
in time that maya is preparing herself
alright do you want to try that yes
just let me open the presentation and
i'll try it okay
um wow
this location is
so let me see
i will need to improvise here if you can
hear me
uh i hope so i am going to
share the presentation now
do you see something
i see my presentation you see your
presentation that's
nice so i have the wrong
presentation
very sorry let's try like this hello
people
my name is radka i'm a corporate lawyer
working in bulgaria right now but i have
been an expat for 15 years
our colleague em here was trying to tell
us some outlines about
the situation in bulgaria the protests
and
why people suddenly went out on the
streets
which background the whole thing has and
uh which points uh are we going to
discuss here
for further information so um
let's start with the protests as you
know
this summer in bulgaria was very hot
i'm here oh so all right i'll just be
very very quick sorry guys um it didn't
happen before with the sessions
so let's start with bulgarian protest
2020 overview context is bulgaria
um just brief um involved in
first and second world on the losing
side um
communist party um uh ruled by the
bulgarian communist party
uh facing uh in the face lasting till
1990
uh transition um started with november
1989 with demonstrations there
started the transition period which um
we can
feel till today when marked with gun
values violence killings criminal
activity and lawlessness
joined the eu in 2007 and in 2009
uh boycott borisov became the prime
minister
with um his popular center right party
gerp so let's take a look uh because
some of the current key political
figures boycott
resource um korea includes membership in
the communist party and his sequence
rise in the security services at that
time
he had a security firm bodyguard then
former communist leader dr jeff you see
them um see him on the left
and mayor of the capital sofia and a
prime minister
um he has um
also for the achievements such as um
stash of euros in his draw for difficult
times
a tape audio tape heart uh threatening
to burn
a member of the european parliament
elena yoncheva
and barcelona gates scandal about a 1.5
million house
bought for his mistress among others
other key figure is media mogul de leon
pesky uh
seen here on the left uh politician
oligarch media mogul
and according to many he is the driving
force in biliary in politics
um in his twenties um most notably still
a student
he has the board of directors
of gardner support one of the largest of
the country and
um 2007 he was fired when he was a
deputy minister
without any replications um notably 2013
his appointment as president of the
state agency for national security
led to protest and um later the
appointment
disappointment was revised and of 2016
uh he um owns roughly 20 newspapers
right
good and we see here that our chief
public prosecutor since november 2019
we hear about him later in the talk so
um let's see what's the current state in
bulgaria um
bulgaria holds currently the 111th place
in the world price freedom
index uh according to transparency
international bulgarian is the most
corrupt in the eu
um and is ranking actually 74th globally
um we hold the first place in european
union as
in income inequality risk of poverty or
social exclusion
and um prime reporting as of date of
2018
and uh bulgaria but holds um the last
place
in gross domestic product per capita as
in 2019
so let's see um which several events
preceded the protest in 2020
that would be um the first uh thing
national security services guards
uh here on the in the picture on the
right uh paid
by tax money uh who were guarding a
national
property beach declared to one of um as
a private
residence to an oligarch um
named ahmed dugan um and
um here exposed by the politician
christopher
uh opposition uh politician chris
stevenov here with the flag on the
left second the previously uh mentioned
um
achievements of the pm bullies of um
audio tape recordings
and thousands of heroes in the draw in
his drawer and as
in the photograph and third the chief
um public prosecutor geshe trading the
offices of the bulgarian
president um who is a prominent critic
of
the party and him so these several
concrete reasons
uh and the general perception of
injustice and corruption and abuse of
power
um of pm borisov and the prosecutor
geschiff
led actually to the protest in 2020
um so over of two videos actually um
made for a campaign for us underlying in
september 2020
we which we don't have any
um um um
any uh yes
um any reaction so far i will tell some
brief facts about the protests
so they began in 9th of july and during
the subsequent months
are marked with arrested protesters
blocked into city roads
tent camps uh protests around the
country and abroad
um some of the concessions of the
brisbane's government
during this period though um
thankfully to the protests include
stimulus packages for the unemployed
health school students uh replacement of
four government ministers
resignation of the minister for justice
two national security guards
being fired after the signal
of the pre-event and on the 5th of
august during the
gerbs rulings parties conference also
notably some men affiliated with the
party assaulted
to journalists uh paulina paolova and
agency keruva
calling the former trash and having her
phone thrown several times
with the warning that her presence is
not welcome at all so um
and we come to the um uh
2nd of september actually the
national grand national revolt
where it was followed by a police
crackdown
and where the violence escalated quickly
so police tear gazing and injuring
protesters
using water cannons attacking further
with pepper spray and baton charges
a journalist dimitro kanarov was beaten
up
brutally kicked in the head thrown to
the ground
his camera was taken and
although he identified himself as a
journalist
many times numerous media organizations
such as
the international um press institute
um expressed a condemned um
[Music]
the the beating and further after that
of the
this process include for example the
rating of a business
that was supportive of the protests
and with the augmentation by the
authorities of a discrepancy of in a
financial
documentation or something with um
of five euros so briefly supporters of
the protests are actually
brought to the um through the
spectrum of society uh president truman
radio
in union nearly 170 scientists the intel
intellectuals and artists students a
different organization anti-racism
disability and lgbt
rights groups trade unions and also
immigrant communities from all over the
world
uh some of the protesting fractions
include the civil movement
fighter which means fighter but is an
acronym for bulgaria united with one
goal
which not only today this year
sent an inquiry revere to the european
commission revealing that
misappropriation of funds from a
bulgarian minister of aggregate
agriculture then the justice for all
initiatives
which demands deep reform of the
judiciary
the poisonous trio a lawyer sculptor and
former radio journalist
vocal critics of the government and one
of the main organizing organization
organizators
of the protests um and
um uh the opposition party has bulgaria
and the civil platform
uh esperica uh with um similar goals
uh mainly the additional reform and the
construction of the
corrupt structures with uh the party as
a bulgari
um so we come to the european uh
union and its reactions most notably um
on the 10th of july one day after the
starting of the um
protest margaret baber chairman of the
epp
um you issued a support for the
government of borisov
still valid till this day funny enough
this particular sentence can be also
truthfully read just
um by cancelling one two words dbp group
fully supposed bulgarian government and
boycott police offend its efforts to
protect the economy against the negative
effects of
fight against corruption and the
progress that is being made
to join the eurozone this is of course
my personal
opinion we further have the map roberto
matson
also part of the epp and um her notable
intervention
at an attempt to suppress a liber uh
resolution
um a committee uh is uh on civil
liberties justice and home affairs
um uh to uh to condemn
um the police crackdown during the
bulgarian protests and um
and to stand for the bulgarian people in
this uh liberal
liberal resolution um so
um which was most notably with
her attempt was the deletion that the
deletion of points addressing the misuse
of the european funds um and um direct
allegation of corruptions towards the
prime minister
uh borisov written down in this
um liberal resolution which was um
accepted um actually on the um if i'm
not mistaken 8th of
october 2020 but um
yes um you'll have the slides you can
read um it's very
nice to see the inequal support for the
people of bulgaria standing there
uh but we have also um some friendly
honest faces
they need to be named that
expressed vocal support um for the
bulgarian people and were on the ground
uh in
several um occasions you see them here
claire danny daniel freud ramona
and just a brief um
personal takeaway from me it's the
protest
for me was the long needed feeling of
community civil consciousness activism
tolerance and empathy
but uh also we see problems that are
still persistent visible today
due to um sexism racism towards for many
people and
anti-lgbtqa most notably on the some
online social platforms which were for
me uh the main means
to experience um the protests
so that's um actually for me and now
sabine a political researcher will
briefly discuss bulgaria's transition in
the context of communication
mechanism between different groups
all right
okay thank you
this was a very quick but on the point
um representation of what's happening in
bulgaria
uh my goal here is going to be to
position what you just talked about in
terms of
the general transition of the country
and to talk a little bit about
how civil society and the eu come
together
in order to help direct um the efforts
of
the state institutions to transition
so um
i'm gonna try to share my presentation
but i think
m is still sharing her screen
is that the case
uh no you can share yours i'm out i can
share
okay
okay do you see this
yes we do
okay so um
did you see me or do you just see my
screen
you're with the screen so i'm on the
screen okay
okay uh so
before i start talking about civil
society the eu
and the state and my communication model
um i want to pre-face these
that um i start with an understanding of
democracy that requires
a debate and a discussion of different
interest groups uh
grievances and interests and so in order
for that to happen we need to have
strong civil society
right uh i very much use a
lockheed definition of civil society one
that follows john locke
uh which suggests that really the norms
and the values by which society lives
are something that's created within
civil society and civil society is in
charge of not only creating these norms
and values but also enforcing them
and the way civil society does that is
by
uh instilling confidence and trust in
state institutions
right so in a way providing state
institutions with the ability
to enforce these norms and values
so what that means is that
one way to evaluate the democracy or
democratic transition in the case of
some countries
is to look at the ability of civil
society to do that
right to empower the state institutions
to protect the norms and the values uh
the consequences of that is that one
civil society
um in order to evaluate actually civil
society we need
to look at their ability to instill
trust and confidence in the government
but also withdraw
trust from the government right and the
way that happens uh often especially in
transitioning countries uh and in the
case of bulgaria
is through protests so the reason i'm
interested in the protest
is um in all protests and in the
transition is because the
the protests uh serve as a measure of
the success
of um the post-government transition in
bulgaria
so this is on civil society um
another thing that i need to make clear
here
is that i am not looking
necessarily at the organizational
structures of different actors so i'm
not looking at how civil society is
organized or
how steady institutions are organized or
how the eu
is organized but i'm looking at the
interaction between these actors
right so i'm looking at the way the eu
communicates with the state or
communicates with civil society what's
the role of civil society
in communication with the state and so
on and so forth
so my communication model suggests that
if the state is to actually
guide the country to a transition and
achieve some type of consolidated
democracy uh it has to have this
pressure from the eu bulgaria has been a
member since 2007
uh and even before that through the
conditionality approach the eu applied
that pressure
so i'm going to be looking at this
connection between the eu and the state
and how the eu
um impacts the state in its attempt to
transition to democracy
i'm also going to be looking at the way
civil society
sort of bottom up pressures the state
and i also be looking at the way the eu
is connected to civil society
now the reason for this last connection
is that
um really bulgarian civil society and
any post-communist civil society in the
very beginning of the transition
was not equipped well because of
communist legacies
because of different issues was not
equipped well
to apply this pressure to the state
uh so is
what is actually the role of the eu in
sort of teaching bulgarian cereal
society uh
to play the role that suicide is
supposed to play
right and so in other words what is the
norm diffusion process by which the eu
empowers cereal society to put pressure
on the state
uh the last connection that you see here
is
uh what comes out from serial society
and goes to the european union
and to me theoretically the feedback
is extremely important so is there uh
does civil society have the ability to
actually
provide the european union with feedback
uh in terms of domestic particularities
in terms of characteristics of the
country
in terms of what's possible and what
it's not possible
so that the eu can then just then adjust
uh its conditionality approach to the
state
so i'm going to start with this
relationship and i will be
presenting the findings of two projects
here
which hopefully will come together in
this communication model
so to measure the eu serious society
interaction
over the years uh i use social network
analysis
and social network analysis is something
that tells us about
interaction in a group of actors
not necessarily the actors themselves
so what you see here are the results of
these social network analysis
uh over time so
2003 2007 and sorry this last one is
2013.
uh that's my bad um
the specific score that you see is
uh something called eigenvector
centrality
and eigenvector centrality determines
the extent to which a particular node
in this case the european union is
essential for a particular network
in this case um ngos
right bulgarian ngos now a side note i
had to use ngos because social movements
are
pretty impossible to measure uh so
those are different ngos which work in a
network
and then uh the eu
is taken out on the top uh and this
is the uh the social network organizes
represents the extent to which
in different years the eu was central to
the organization of these
ngos uh what we see here is that in 2003
uh eu was on the fifth place in 2007
uh it was on the second place right 2007
is a year that was selected
because of
um
can you guys hear me
yes i can hear you yes yes
somebody's saying german and i don't
know if they're talking to me
no i was um i was it was my mistake i'm
very very sorry
but i will use that that we don't have
um
too much time perhaps okay and
just yeah yeah all right yeah so anyhow
the
um the result of that is that
um and i need to shorten it but
um the idea here is that the eu
so there are two interesting findings
right the one is the eu gets involved
a little bit later with bulgarian civil
society
uh and as a result the we are civil
society is incapable
of really participating in a transition
in these initial years of the transition
where uh for example the constitution
was written a large body of
legal code was produced and zero said it
wasn't really there to
um to contribute uh 2007 we see the
european union a little bit more
involved
but in 2013 the european union again is
not involved
so that's my finding on the connection
between the european union
and civil society and unfortunately is
not a good one
in order to study the connection between
the state and civil society i look at
the protests in 2013 which were very
similar to me
uh to the protest in 2020
and uh i use linguistic models
in order to determine the extent to
which
uh the protesters in 2013 are actually
communicating with uh state institutions
in that case the parliament so the goal
of this was to discover a set of
rhetorical themes
that are both politically interesting
but
also and also partly differentiated and
so politically interesting
means uh uh themes that are represented
in parliamentary discussions
more frequently than in everyday
language and party differentiated means
uh phrases and themes that are more
commonly
used by one party over the other
so i downloaded all the
uh transcripts from the parliamentary
discussions
during the times of the protests um
i created three language models one was
the first one was a language model of
the bulgarian language which is derived
from wikipedia
just because i needed a large corpus of
bulgarian language
and the purpose of that one was to
get rid of all types of
language parts that are not interesting
so propositions
things like she her also think uh
you know mr uh
names and so on and so forth then i
created
a language model of a collection of
bulgarian parliamentary transcripts and
also a different language model for each
major political party
and so a long story short the results
you can see on this slide um on the
right side you have what the civil
society is talking about
during the protest again those early
protests in 2013
uh civil society talks about resignation
of the government
new elections for parliament uh they at
one point wanted a change in the
electoral system
the main grievance was transparency and
accountability mechanism
uh so anti-corruption practices uh
commitment to bulgaria's european
direction
european norms was something that they
were using a lot
and also some groups require direct
democracy
uh which means more referendums so while
civil society
is uh on the streets
asking for all these things on the left
side of the slide you can see what
parliament's talking about so uh on top
is
the different parties uh then you
have on the side by month uh
and for the sake of time i'm not gonna
go too much into it
uh but you guys will have the slides to
kind of look at it after that
uh the general idea is that
really um we observe a huge disconnect
in the rhetoric of parliament
and civil society in other words suicide
is talking about
major issues such as corruption such as
a
lack of commitment uh to european
direction and european norms
while at the same time uh parliament is
discussing
uh tobacco production local government
closing borders uh illegal immigrants
and so on and so forth right so the
conclusion
here is that uh
if we look at civil society maybe we'll
find that it's well structured and
organized and if we look at parliament
and other institutions
maybe we can theoretically find that
they're also well organized
but my uh focus in this transition
is the communication between the
different actors
and through the social network analysis
and through this i find that it's
um lacking so
sorry for taking more time
and thank you
hello
do i have to do i get my time now
yes but i think we can just uh try to be
very concerned
i will try to try to be very quick so
i'm going to
be talking to you about the protests and
the background
especially the unprecedented uh demand
of the protest
it's unprecedented in the whole
democratic world as far as i know
and this is the demand for the
resignation of the
attorney general as far as
i am concerned i haven't heard of
such a demand in any protest in the
democratic europe
so far and it is interesting to know
why exactly the attorney general what
has he done wrong
so i'll start with a quick background
the uh on july 9th the the protests
broke out after a
heavily armed police forces broke into
the president's
offices on assumptions i i
want to underline the the word
assumptions of
dealing with influence whatever that
means
so the prosecutor background for that
was as
m explained earlier the opposition
politickers
politicians christopher who
who casted to the beach of rosso's nets
now a private residence of a former
political leader of madogan and
there he met national security guard who
weren't supposed to be there
so the president commented on that that
uh if the national security guards were
still
under his super supervision uh it won't
it wouldn't be happening this this thing
wouldn't be happening
a day later the prosecutor unknown
uh unknown um
how to say to avoid the word accomplice
but the non-accomplice of the government
was storming was riding the presidency
the president's building
and two hours later after this disratia
the bulgarian society went on the street
and this time it was not about
economical questions it was not about
money and social um
social matters but it was about
protecting democracy because um
the uh attorney general this prosecutor
is which we
have uh the pleasure of working with uh
since
2019 this december uh he was a very
controversial figure
since his election as the single
candidate
in one of his interviews as a candidate
for the
uh for the position he told he doesn't
believe
in separating the authorities into
legislative judiciary judiciary and
administrative so he practically stands
out he doesn't believe in democracy then
he was flat out elected
by the majority of the uh
of the members of
the judicial system the judicial
overseeing
electoral system
[Music]
there are protests against him then they
are
there are protests now and he started
his career
of course uh with very controversial
actions
one of those which involves
world cultural heritage taken as
evidence from
one one successful businessman in
bulgaria who was famous for his
collections of thrashing heritage a
unique
unique antiques uh for the whole world
for the history of europe
we're taking it into plastic bags and
locked into evidence
um so the prosecution said but then two
months later two months later they
popped out in the black market or on the
antiques market it was not really the
black market
so uh we also that uh
it was not evident the evidence they
wanted
with with this uh cultural heritage they
wanted the money
and um upon these actions
uh i am a german
a german expert from the espionage
museum in
berlin a historian he told
for the deutsche welle for an analysis
that um
the actions of the attorney general
geschiff
are unprofessional illegal and
scandalous
so does it
okay thank you we have three or four
more minutes for rossan
and that's it so that's why
it's me now yeah yeah okay thank you
well uh as you already heard
we have troubles with corruption with
civil society
judiciary and uh as
far as we know uh three key elements
need to be present for
uh an efficient democracy uh independent
judiciary
strong political opposition and free
media and uh
i could tell you that as a country where
are
totally screwed i started working as
a journalist then more than 15 years ago
uh in a weekly newspaper called capital
it's one of the few free voices nowadays
in
bulgaria
when
bulgarian government and judiciary were
trying to convince the european
commission that the country was ready
to enter in the eu the european
commission
has been closely monitoring the ongoing
judicial reform
the fight against corruption and
organized crime
bulgaria became a member of the eu in
2007 and
this monitoring monitoring continued
afterwards
back in 2007 bulgaria was on 51st
place in the world press freedom index
of reporters without borders
and uh what happens after uh bulgaria
joined the eu
uh the media freedom uh literally
collapsed and since 2019
bulgaria is 111th place within
the index of reporters without borders
bulgaria is somewhere around
countries where political regimes are
putting
journalists in in prisons because
because of their uh because of their
work
so we are the last place not only in
european union but
uh in europe as well
last year the european commission was
silently observing
the stagnation of the free press in
bulgaria
and that was totally inexplicable
because the european commission was
uh expecting from bulgaria to uh to
to achieve judicial reform
and to fight against corruption
and it's common sense that you could not
expect effective
fight against corruption without strong
and independent investigative journalism
it is common sense also that you cannot
have accountable and transparent
institution if there are
no journalists that are asking questions
simply asking questions to the
government
you could not have a critical mass of
we need a society that could go out on
the streets and
and protest if they are not well
informed on
what's going uh in their own country and
back in 2019
european commission put down in their
monitoring report on the reform of
judiciary and fight
against corruption that the status quo
of
bulgarian media makes all those reforms
regarding judiciary and fight against
corruption uh almost impossible
and the paradox is that it's the
european commission
itself uh is is mainly to blame for for
the state of the media in freedom in
bulgaria
because when bulgaria became member of
the eu it started
receiving european funds billions had to
to go to agriculture
infrastructure projects education
science reform of administration
judiciary
instead you funds turn out to be a
poison
and i'll explain briefly why they
quickly become a major driver of the
bulgarian economic
economy they endangered the competition
because the government
pre-allocated the public process public
procurement to companies that are close
to them
and european funds are the ones that
have contributed the most
to the state of the media in bulgaria
how because each in each budget of
european program a certain amount must
be spent on
publicity and advertising of that that
project
and with this media society it's true to
learn what's what has been achieved with
european funding you know to show the
projects the new roads and blah blah
blah
uh and the political class of bulgaria
clearly quickly realized that with this
money they could
buy media comfort so the media that were
pro
government started receiving state
funding through the european funds
and those who asked the questions to the
government
uh will not allow tutu to
to receive such a money in just
single year the state has become the
largest advertiser in media the
government was
buying media comfort with eu funds and
the eu was endangering the democracy uh
with within my country with using their
own eu funds
over the years free voices become less
and less
if a journalist showed the courage to
investigate corruption within the
government or simply ask the questions
was immediately punished by by the
government
so um i could just mention uh you could
receive tax checks from the tax
authorities
you could be uh some month you know in
the police station uh just for
random questioning but the most powerful
weapon
of the government is smear campaigns uh
in the yellow media uh
tablet media that are um uh that are
close to the government
uh it's it's quite it's quite um
an irony but uh one of those newspapers
which is very common and
very very popular in bulgaria uh was
receiving
uh eu money at the time that
the same website was put on the list of
newspapers that are that were spreading
uh
fake news on uh on the european union
some of my colleagues on the pastel have
received the threats from
on because of their work or
even uh you know indictments by
by the prosecutor's office it was not
until
this year that the european parliament
saw the problem and adopted a resolution
on the rule of law
and media freedom in bulgaria
and i'll finish with this in my opinion
it's too late that's that's briefly from
me thank you
thank you all there is actually a
question we can perhaps put it in very
quickly uh which states
uh why do you think um eu-based news
outlets outside of bulgaria are
basically ignoring this story
especially when belarus is getting lots
of coverage i think that would be for
you rosanne
for uh the past 15 years i was um
i was working with with foreign
journalists that were
covering bulgaria the the context is um
it's very complex here in bulgaria and
it's very hard
to explain what is going on in uh in our
country to
to european audience but i i think
that's uh
when uh the situation in bulgaria um
is now in uh agenda of the european
parliament
uh we saw in the last uh six months uh
very in-depth pieces in in central
european newspapers all over uh i mean
in germany in france
uh in italy uh in switzerland uh
so finally uh our foreign colleagues
realized that
it's it's an issue and
actually they realized where european
taxpayers money are going
um right um
i i think we're done
um perhaps a brief commentary
um from yuratka if you want to
add something because you were cut a
little bit short in one two sentences
i don't see anyone um telling me
i cannot speak so
um perhaps if you would like to to
make a summary or an abstract of what
you wanted to say
uh thank you i uh i wanted to point out
that
uh the judicial system in bulgaria
is really up to a medieval level
and it starts with the attorney generals
because as he
likes as the geschiff the the current
person in in service likes to call
himself the instrument of god uh it's
it's not a normal thing i i think we can
finish with that because
uh anything i i say after this statement
um it will be it's not necessary
i i think the the a person a prosecutor
who
likes to call himself the instrument of
god in front of
all people is not
suitable for such a responsible service
yes in
[Music]
thank you thank you all uh we don't have
any uh questions right now i think we
can
close it off um wait
wait i don't know perhaps we'll i don't
know i'm not going to speak
let's go well thank you and i just want
to say
you know if anybody has further
questions uh they can
always contact at least me and i think
my
contact information is there and
bulgaria needs a lot of help
in all different aspects so
discussion is where things start so at
least i'm open to talk about this
more with all people thank you
thank you we can we have to finish now
okay thank you guys
okay yeah thank you
you