On this 21^st day of anti-government demonstrations a nationwide protest rally has been called in Sofia. Almost 12,000 people have reacted to the call on Facebook “Use your voice to shatter the deafness of those in power!” The protest is set for 7 PM tonight, and the organizers say that after the rally they will begin their “vacation” – camping out in what is known as “the triangle of power”, the space in front of the Council of Ministers building until the resignations they are demanding are submitted (of the government and the Prosecutor General of Bulgaria – editorial note).

“I am still seeing a delegitimized government and it will find it very difficult to stay in power,” says political analyst Milen Lyubenov for the BNR’s Horizont channel. He says that “it will be very difficult for the government to hold on to power until the regular elections (in March 2021 – editorial note). There have been 16 cabinet reshuffles in three and a half years. There is lack of capacity, there is very serious delegitimization. In this sense the protest has been a success thus far in that Bulgaria is the centre of international attention, with corruption in the focus.”

Еvery member of the public has his or her party preferences. It is obvious that it is a citizens’ protest, Milen Lyubenov says.

“At the protests I met people who have “synchronized their watches” and who are not just dreaming, they are demanding a different future for Bulgaria,” says Bulgarian conductor of world renown Yordan Kamdzhalov. Much of his life and his career has been spent outside this country but the flag of Bulgaria is what has taken him to the anti-government demonstrations in Sofia.

“Bulgaria is in the gutter,” says the conductor in an interview for the BNR, and describes the country at this time as a “sinking Titanic”. He adds that in terms of structure and organization, there are huge misconceptions at the protest, but he also believes the need for radical change of governance in Bulgaria has no alternative. 

He says he does not fear for the future of his five children, and he goes back to the time when he himself, as a third-grader in 1989, (the beginning of democratic changes in the country) was in the central streets of Sofia with his father. In his words the organizers of the protest have been making mistakes, demanding things in an immature, crude, aggressive way.

“What are we doing – we are pouring out water that is muddy, and in – water that is half-muddy… What Bulgaria needs is water that is crystal clear. Bulgaria has to stop making compromises in every respect.” 

The musician says that the cabinet reshuffle is cosmetic:

“I am not interested in cosmetics. What I need are radical, deep changes. I don’t know who will carry them through, but unless this happens by 2025, we all stand to lose too much. I think that the Bulgarian nation must start getting together to discuss what and how we can each do… We cannot just sit and watch this country being destroyed. We must all take the initiative and not just come out to protest but revive the country by our own example… At the protests I saw people like me, people who are not interested in party geometry. People who want a life more decent, more adequate, a clean Bulgaria, not a Bulgaria that is falling apart.”

Interviews by Diana Doncheva and Lyudmila Zhelezova, Horizont channel, BNR

Edited by Elena Karkalanova