President Radev: Three decades after transition began, we are still faced with three historical tasks – rule of law, freedom of speech, fair elections

31 years ago on this day the transition to democracy began in Bulgaria. The hopes of the free citizens for a just society, free initiative and social Bulgaria, as set out in the Constitution, have so far failed to materialize, this country’s President Rumen Radev wrote on Facebook.

We walked a long road that took us to united Europe, but we wasted a huge part of our human resource. Three decades after the transition began, corruption has replaced ideology. The law is increasingly moving away from morality. The gap between poor and rich is widening. We are again faced with the three historical tasks of 1989 - rule of law, freedom of speech and fair elections.

Autocracy and its behind-the-scenes partners have brought society back to the starting point of the transition, President Radev further wrote.

It is time for hard-working and talented Bulgarians to get space to make their dreams come true. Let's stop expelling doctors and nurses abroad. Let's reunite the families who are looking for a livelihood abroad today. Bulgaria is not the fatherland of a handful of unscrupulous politicians and oligarchs, but a common home of all Bulgarians. The brotherhood of honourable people, which upholds its principles every day, got together this year and raised their voice in the squares.

The slogan "Mafia (mafia-style organisations), out" foretells the end of the usurpers of the transition.

I will always be with you in the struggle to restore justice in society, law in the state, the state of citizens, Radev said.

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On November 10, 2020, Bulgaria marks 31 years since the start of transition to democracy. On this date in 1989, at a plenum of the central committee of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Todor Zhivkov was removed from power as the First Secretary of the party. He ruled the country autocratically for 33 years.

The ousting of Zhivkov resulted in the start of political changes and transition of the country to democracy and market economy.