Program for decommunization and democratization of Bulgaria

We the citizens of the Republic of Bulgaria, led by our awareness that 7 years after the Resolution 1096/27.06.1996 of the Council of Europe was passed concerning the measures for dismantling the heritage of the former Communist totalitarian regimes, the Bulgarian governments didn't implement any of the recommendations of the Resolution, as follows,

1. Restructuring the former institutional and law systems based on the principles of demilitarization, decentralization, dismantling the monopolies, and privatization, as well as debureaucratization to reduce to minimum the communist totalitarian over-regulation;

2. Prosecution and punishment for individuals that committed criminal acts during the communist totalitarian regime;

3. Rehabilitation of people convicted of "crimes" which in a civilized society do not constitute criminal acts;

4. Opening for public examination of the communist secret service files;

5. Passing laws for lustration and decommunization,

and concerned by the consequences of this inaction, described in the Resolution 1096 as "reign of oligarchy instead of democracy, corruption instead of the rule of law, and organized crime instead of human rights" at best, and "velvet restoration of a totalitarian regime, if not a violent overthrow of the fledgling democracy" at worst, we insist on

IMMEDIATE AND RADICAL DECOMMUNIZATION OF BULGARIA

through broad public discussion and accepting with wide consensus by the democratic civil and political formations in Bulgaria of a set of measures including:

1. Passing a Law for overcoming the consequences from the communist regime, with the legal possibility to prosecute functionaries of the Bulgarian Communist Party, Bulgarian People's Agricultural Union, the Dimitrov's Communist Youth League, the Fatherland Front, the Bulgarian Professional (Labor) Unions, as well as officers of the Bulgarian People's Army and regular personnel and collaborators of the security services for acts which, though not criminalized under the legislation of the specified period, in a civilized society would constitute criminal acts (e.g. the so-called "revival process," forceful internment, correctional labor camps, etc.);

2. Independent investigation of mass executions without charge or trial immediately after September 9, 1944, and invalidation of the Law of Popular Tribunals, along with invalidation of its verdicts except in cases of proven criminal acts;

3. Passing a Law or other legislation act to restore the validity of the suspended Law of Access to the files of the former State Security and the Intelligence Department of the General Staff of the Bulgarian People's Army, to hand the State Security files over to the Public Records Office, and to prohibit destruction of files before their declassification and handing over to the Public Records Office;

4. Passing amendments to the current Law of Classified Information to guarantee that individuals who have been regular personnel or collaborators of State Security may not have access to such information, and to provide a mechanism these individuals to be removed from their present positions in the intelligence, security and law-enforcement services.

5. Passing a Law for Restrictions for holding public office in Republic of Bulgaria (Law of Lustration), within a specified period of time to remove from the public administration, the public broadcasting agencies, the businesses with prevailing state or local government property shares, the state and local public finances, all individuals who held during the communist regime offices of secretaries down to members of committees of the Bulgarian Communist Party on all levels, as well as party secretaries on payroll in all public enterprises, departments and institutes. The wording of the Law should comply with the recommendations of the Resolution 1096/27.06.1996 of the Council of Europe.

6. Passing new Law for decommunization of education, to fully eradicate the communist doctrine and all its elements from the education programs in the elementary, primary, college-level and university-level education, to prohibit the election of communist functionaries (according to the list included in the Law of Lustration) in the academic university boards, and to help promote the effective dissemination of democratic ideas.

Along with these decommunization measures, the democratic civil and political formations in Bulgaria should accept and enforce the execution of the following

PROGRAM FOR DEMOCRATIZATION OF BULGARIA

1. Calling forth pre-term parliamentary elections, with all legitimate democratic means, including peaceful civil protests;

2. Elections for Grand National Assembly, to work out new Constitution as the framework for the social contract between the citizens of Bulgaria and their elected representatives;

3. Strengthening the local self-government through direct vote for province governors; establishing the institution of province parliaments with direct vote for representatives; enabling the provinces to have independent fiscal and tax policies;

4. Restructuring the Legislature by reducing the number of the representatives in the National Assembly, abolishing their immunity from criminal prosecution, establishing a strong majority element in the electoral system (prevailing over the proportional system along party lines), constitution of a two-chambers legislature;

5. Reducing the dependency of the Executive on the Presidency through abolishing of the so-called "parliamentary roulette" (par. 99 of the current Constitution);

6. Reforming the Judiciary, with the result of separating prosecution and investigation branches from it, restrictions on the legal immunity and irremovability of magistrates, and removing the possibility for abuses with the magistrates' legal power;

The people who uphold this program are willing also to discuss and accept other proposals by individuals, organizations and political parties according to the need for decommunization and democratization of Bulgaria. This need is generated by the lies, cynicism and skepticism that filled up the last 13 years. This was time without any values, morality, or norms for social behavior whatsoever. To think that such a state of matters is only temporary and will fade away by itself, is self-delusion. To escape from the swamp of communism we must, by our own efforts, to put to end the criminal corporate power and make new social contract with the politicians which will force them into direct and personal accountability before the society. Only when we successfully fight our own way to more stable, more just, and better constituted society, can we defend our right to a life of human dignity.

Let's join our efforts to a new beginning!

Created by Kalin Manolov
Translation from Bulgarian by Bojidar Marinov