Under the Radar | Part I: Bulgarian Grievances – Protests & Revolts

ONLINE TEA TIME WITH DENICA YOTOVA (EUROPEAN COUNCIL ON FOREIGN RELATIONS, BERLIN) & YASEN GEORGIEV (ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE, SOFIA)

11th November, 6-7.30 pm

During the last months, many events happened in Eastern Europe and EU-Russian relations. The demonstrations in Belarus as well as the poisoning of Navalny have been in the center of attention from the media and political decisionmakers. However, there were many other events in the last weeks which also need the attention of political decisionmakers in the West. In our new event-series “Under the Radar”, we want to focus on what is happening underneath the surface in these countries.

Our first event focuses on the ongoing, wide-spread demonstrations in Bulgaria against corruption, state capture and severe governmental influence in the media and other public spheres. The protests, which started in early June 2020, have been continuously going on for more than four months. They were triggered by a political affair around the Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and actions of the opposition against a former MP. The main demands of the demonstrators are the resignation of the Prime Minister and his government, as well as of the chief prosecutor Ivan Geshev.

However, Bulgaria’s problems are deeper than just the current crisis surrounding the government. There are several structural problems regarding corruption, freedom of speech and a worsening economic situation. How can the demonstrations affect these issues and lead to a new way of policy-making? What chances do the protesters have to achieve their goals? And what responsibilities and options for action does the EU have to react to the situation in Bulgaria?

Together with our guests Denica Yotova (European Council on Foreign Relations, Berlin) and Yasen Georgiev (Economic Policy Institute, Sofia) we will answer these and other questions.

Please join us for an interactive and engaging  online discussion via Zoom, by signing up below. We will send you the Zoom link a few days ahead of the event. We are looking forward to an engaging and interesting discussion and hope to see many of you there!

This event is organized by Polis180’s program “Perspektive Ost”.