On October 24, in connection with the end of the local election the Bulgarian
President Peter Stoyanov made a statement to the nation before BNT, in
which he openly accused the United Democratic Forces/UDF/ in "corruption,
distancing from the people, and pushing the reform into a wrong direction."
In his address/ excerpt of which is cited below/ " Bulgarian citizens
can understand why the government is closing down loss-making enterprises
and why the pensions and salaries cannot be double overnight, but they
cannot understand why, whereas they continue to be poor, many persons
in power and those close to them have become richer. We have never said
that this reform will be accompanied by corruption, that it will be used
as a cover by high-ranking and smaller rulers, by their relatives, and
by people close to those in power, to enrich themselves." The President
Stoyanov also advised the PM Ivan Kostov " to undertake immediate actions
against corruption, incompetent and self-satisfied officials, no matter
what their position is, whether they are members of the government and
whether they have special merits to the UDF." On October 27, the President
deliveried his second speech to the nation, in which he explained that
the objective of his Sunday statement was not to topple the UDF government
but to encourage the ruling authorities to take "energetic actions in
order to bring back the trust of Bulgarian people and of the international
community " In his third address for a week Stiyanov qualified "the seeing
one's own mistakes was a guaranty for long political life" and expressed
satisfaction with the fact that those to whom he addressed his statement
had heard him.
Accuser: Peter Stoyanov, President of Republic
of Bulgaria However, the President Stoyanov has no intention to announce
in public the information he possesses about corrupt rulers. In his view,
the responsibility for revealing facts lied with the government.
Media coverage: 83 news reports, analyses, commentaries
Reaction of the accused: On October 26 took place a meeting of
the National Executive Council of the UDF on the President's statement.
In the same day right after the meeting the UDF leadership met secretly
with Stoyanov. All dailies of October 29, informed about the declaration
approved by the parliamentary majority on October 28, which says: " We
will continue to be politically intolerant to any form of corruption and
to corrupt rulers at any levels of power in all those cases when corruption
is proven. " The PM Ivan Kostov announced that he had demanded from the
intelligence a special repot on all cases of corruption available to them.
He also promised receiving the report to make it public. At the same time
Kostov declared that he would not dismiss any more state officials on
the basis of the signals of violation but he would insist on concrete
evidence in every particular case. The chair of the National Assembly
Yordan Sokolov, stressed that if there were any signals of corruption
pointing at certain official, those official would be striped of the political
trust of the ruling party. Trud daily / October 29/ reported that the
intelligence had already compiled a list of foreign bank accounts of politicians,
on the top of which was the deputy PM Evgeniii Bakardzhiev, followed by
the secretary general of the UDF Hristo Bisserov. The another deputy PM
Alexander Bozhkov was in the middle of the list. Blue MPs told Trud that
Ivan Kostov was ready to fire Bakardzhiev and four other ministers, mentioning
Peter Boyadzhiev - of Health, and George Ananiev - of Defense. In connection
of the first statement of the President Alexander Bozhkov, deputy PM,
promised on October 27: " The UDF will make no compromise if President
Stoyanov really possesses evidence of corrupt UDF politicians." Minister
of Social Cares Ivan Neikov, in turn, claimed, cited by 24 chassa daily,
October 25: " The power cannot generate corruption." The blue MPs considered
as normal the mistakes of the government. They are a part of the lessons
which every politicians received, commented Dimitar Abadzhiev from the
UDF. The chair of the parliamentary budget committee Yordan Tzonev denied
that the reform served as a cover for corruption.
Reaction of the elite: The leader of the BSP/Bulgarian Socialistic
Party/ George Parvanov said the ruling Right was supported only by its
partisan administration and "cousins" and concluded that the UDF would
not able to rule longer based on such a narrow public support. The MP
from the Bulgarian Euroleft Party Ivan Boikov, believed that the President
was in a hurry to catch the "last train". The former President of Republic
of Bulgaria Zhelyu Zhalev, in a commentary in 24 chassa daily, October
26, wrote: The President talks about corruption in general. To be truly
concerned means to call the things by their proper names. To name the
persons who are pushing the UDF to "saturation" and eventually to falling
from power. I am not sure that there is even one minister who hasn't taken
a part in privatization deals - either through relatives or proxies /
What the President concealed"/. The VMRO leader Krassimir Karakachanov,
quoted by Trud daily on October 26, said: "The President is right. Corruption
is the main factor that repels the foreign investors and put a strain
on Bulgaria's image in Europe…" The Podkrepa trade-union will prepare
a "bulky package of materials on corruption" and will hand it to the President
Stoyanov", became clear from the information in Sega daily, October 28.
Media reaction: If compare the reactions, commentaries and assessments
of the media following the President's address, to those of the politicians,
in addition to the bad presentation on the local elections, we will find
out that they were identical to a great extent. Even though such newspapers
as Democratsia and Standart, considered blue organs, admitted the wide-spreading
of corruption at the high political levels. The other newspapers - opposition,
moderate or informally close to the ruling party , qualified the President
Stoyanov speech as true but belated. Some of them drew parallel between
the address and the well-known in the past "Boyana lawns" initiated by
the former President Zhelyu Zhelev. . According to some observers, this
was only a performance played by Kostsov and Stoyanov in order to depart
public opinion from the catastrophically lost electoral trust in the UDF
demonstrated trough the vote on the local elections. Fourth think that
Stoyanov had cornered the PM Ivan Kostov to the wall, and thus the war
between them broke again. According to fifth commentators, by his speech
Peter Stoayanov brought back on the political stage, making clear that
he would play one of the leading roles in the domestic political life.
Other journalists consider his speech aimed at the intention to be a leading
figure in the foreign Bulgarian policy as well - at least till the meeting
of the European Union in December in Helsinki, on which depends the future
full membership of Bulgaria in the EU. Here are some headlines of newspapers
commentaries: Monitor - " Kostov and Stoyanov play a performance "Corruption";
"Corruption starts from the top of power but only small fish are caught";
Trud "Stoyanov cornered Kostov to the wall"; "The blue functionaries are
putting on the mask of innocence"; Duma - " Peter Stoyanov discovered
America"; Novinar " From the TV lawns of Stoyanov is smelling of populism",
"The blue rulers played "Corruption" to insure themselves before the EU".
Sega daily ' We fed up with the vaudeville "Fighting corruption"; " Stoyanov
- President of the delusions".
Commentary of the experts: The second address of the President
Stoyanov contains also a very clear but disturbing signal, which, unfortunately,
slipped the media attention or wasn't been widely commented neither by
the political elite nor by the journalists, - the corruption is eating
the political trust and support for our country on the part of the international
community, which could lead to very negative after-effects/ actually,
the signals for corruption are continuously coming abroad and Bulgaria
is among the most corrupt countries in the world/. An interesting precedent
to notice in the case "Stoynov" - Trud daily started its own front-page
column under the headline " Who is?.. On the N-day from the address of
the President, in which he challenges the rulers to purge themselves from
corruption , nobody answers." The purpose of the Trud's initiative is
to receive evidence in written form of corrupt high-ranking blue functionaries,
which, in turn, the newspaper to publish. A week after its breaking/October
23-29/, the scandal began gradually to fade away. No matter of the different
and controversial assessments of the address, the so-called "Stoyanov"
case is extremely indicative because of three main reasons: The first
one is, that the head of the state openly posed to the public attention
the question about corruption, identifying the phenomenon with the ruling
majority. On the second hand, that, in turn, provoked numerous reactions,
in practice of all concerned political parties and authorities. The third
reason is, being raised so openly in the public and media area, it is
supposed to force the rulers to answer the public expectations for pointing
out and punishing the corrupt blue activists. The responsibility for this
will entirely lay on the PM Ivan Kostov, who is supposed to remove the
corrupt ministers from their positions.