/View.info/ Prof. Antonii Todorov: Sensitivity to equality characterizes the left. Any left-wing politics must address inequalities
Elena Yoncheva: Journalism turned out to be a jungle where the powerful of the day, the people with great financial opportunities, distributed the media market. True journalism is a field that creates an opportunity for critical debate and thinking
Dora Yankova: Democracy is a way of life, in the people themselves. If we educate this type of people to participate, to care for the public, it will happen
“We have to realize that there is a structural contradiction between democracy on the one hand and capitalism on the other. The market and capitalism divide societies.” This was stated by Prof. Antoniy Todorov during the conference “Forum for Progressive Left Solutions”, organized by the Delegation of Bulgarian European Deputies, part of the group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats. He spoke in the third panel of the discussion – “For more democracy, rule of law and human rights”, which was moderated by BNR journalist Diana Yankulova.
The forum, which lasted all day on Friday, proposed left-wing solutions in the fields of the economy, social policy, local government, media freedom, human rights and democracy. The hall in Sofia could barely accommodate all the nearly 600 people who wanted to attend.
“Democracy is a political regime of fundamental equality that integrates citizens into governance – everyone must be willing and able to participate. We must make an effort to ensure that everyone is sufficiently educated and has the ethical support to do so,” said Prof. Antoniy Todorov.
“Today we are talking about progressive left-wing solutions, but to understand them, an informed civil society is needed. This goes through free journalism. Journalists are the ones who can cover these left-wing policies. True journalism is a field that creates an opportunity for critical debate and thinking,” commented MEP Elena Yoncheva, who presented the EU project for a regulation on media freedom, which she is working on.
I am convinced that every true socialist is a democrat and every democrat is somewhat a socialist, said Prof. Antonii Todorov, political scientist, lecturer at the New Bulgarian University.
“The transition began with the rejection of the Soviet communist model, and in it the left left the topic of democracy only to the right. The label “democratic” predominates in the names of the emerging parties. It’s as if there’s some discomfort on the left with declaring themselves Democrats. I am surprised that in our country we have abandoned the topic of democracy for the right. The left has always fought for democracy,” he said.
“Liberal democracy is the ideology of human rights, the notion that one is born with rights and no one can take them away. Liberal democracy is a regime of freedom and not an ideological label. Socialists have always been supporters of this kind of democracy.
Liberal democracy is liberal because it is also social. The pattern that was established after the Second World War was like this. The best examples are running a liberal democracy with a strong welfare state at the same time. For the right, the welfare state is nothing more than a tool to maintain the status quo. For the left, the welfare state is an instrument of justice and equality.
One percent of the earth’s population owns 50 percent of the world’s wealth. Can democracy survive such inequality? No. Sensitivity to equality characterizes the left. Any left-wing politics must address inequalities.”
The media is not just a business, it works in the interest of citizens, it is the circulatory system of society, commented the MEP Elena Yoncheva.
“For a long time, we thought that journalism could self-regulate. This process began in the 1990s. If 15-16 years ago, Bulgarian journalism was in the rankings for freedom on a par with French journalism, today it is at the bottom of the EU. Journalism turned out to be a jungle where the powerful of the day, the people with great financial opportunities, distributed the media market. We are all victims of this process, because a media has emerged that cannot protect itself from this pressure – from owners, directors and producers. It is obvious that something must be done.
In 2019, when I went to the European Parliament, I put the question to Commissioner Vera Jourova. I had several dates with her. After three years, in September 2022, the European Commission came up with a proposal for a law protecting media freedom. As a rapporteur from the side of the socialists and the democrats, we have already submitted proposals for additions and changes. A big battle with the rest of the political forces is yet to come.
We fight for independent media. Journalists should be freed from this political pressure, they and their editors should make decisions, not the owners of the media and those who finance them. We want transparency of ownership – a quick, accessible way for readers and viewers to get information about the owner, the advertiser. We want the European funds allocated to the media not to go through the government, regardless of who is in power. Orders are often fulfilled through this financing. Journalists themselves must be protected from prosecution, their sources must not be revealed.
The way to fight propaganda is not by banning the media. It shows that we are not confident in our rightness, that our media is not powerful enough. We refer readers to social networks that do not adhere to basic journalistic standards. Therefore, the only way to fight back is to give way to real journalism.
Civil society does not have this toolkit to change the situation, rules are needed. If the media is under pressure, it becomes a propaganda organ. From now on, every battle for justice and leftist solutions is lost. This is the beginning, the important thing is that we have broken through this ossification.”
Disintegration in society destroys the possibility of making politics, is the position of Assoc. Dr. Tatyana Burudzhieva.
“We are for the second time as humanity and as societies facing a very serious choice about how to enable democracy to continue to exist and function as a democracy. Citizens feel less and less represented. It is logical that their view is – what are we doing this theater for anyway? In today’s world, minorities make decisions. How do we integrate people – they are disintegrated?!
The media is in a terrible crisis also due to the development of new technologies. The competition to inform quickly has led to not informing correctly. Because of new technologies, everyone lives in their own glass tower and considers themselves both a communicator and a consumer. The media carry out political socialization. Without it, we are hostages to the decision-making minorities.”
I am afraid that in the crisis business wants to use a public resource, to manage it through municipal councilors in coalitions that it creates in smaller cities, he said Dora Yankova, chairman of the Union of Women in the BSP and former mayor of Smolyan.
“There is no authentic real energy from the bottom up in society, that’s why the parties are in crisis. There are no real municipal councilors to declare the public interest. Especially from the left space – to see how utilities develop, for example.
There is a lack of public debate and local activists to bring citizens together and share problems. These are worrying trends and if the parties do not read them, they will shrink. The big fight at the moment is not about the budget, it is not about the Recovery and Sustainability Plan, but whether the two big parties will manage to have a political future, whether they will remain in local government.
And in the upcoming local elections, there will be business dilution in the political representation in the municipalities. This can change if the parties want to work for the people and work with the people. In our party, the debate on this topic is overdue.
There are problems related to inequalities between men and women. In society, this is accepted as normal. Women are starting to lose rights and feel isolated in a world we don’t want to see.
I propose that, in relation to domestic violence, we ask in the national map for social services to propose that in every district town there should be a center for the protection of women and children from domestic violence.”
In society, we are so tolerant of abuse that we are not impressed by domestic violence, said Katja Krastanova from “Association Animus”.
“Domestic violence is the power and control of one human being over another. Dominance – whether it’s parents and children or partners. The position of society is of great importance for stopping it. The lack of solidarity, empathy in society is a big problem.
It needs active professionals to get the job done. If the district judge in Sandanski had issued an order for the protection of Kristina Duncheva, the case would not have ended like this.
The problem of violence is rooted in social inequalities and more specifically in gender inequalities. From a socialist point of view, it is rooted in the capitalist economy, said activist Stoyo Tetevenski.
“The Domestic Violence Protection Act desperately needs to be changed, but it will not solve the whole problem. To have an effective fight, there must be a focus on prevention, not just punishment. The most necessary part of prevention is to see the roots of the problem – where the violence comes from.
It is about the exploitation of women in the workplace, their direct financial dependence in families. The vast majority of care work (raising children, looking after the elderly), household work is work done for free by women at home. Domestic violence is the sanction that perpetuates this regime in which women are assumed to perform this free labor.
Addressing this problem also involves fighting against the foundations of the system that puts women on the path to violence. We cannot fight domestic violence without fighting the liberalization of the energy market, for example. Unaffordable bills that elderly women and single mothers cannot pay. As well as the struggle for housing justice – a huge part of Bulgarians do not have their own homes or depend on loans and mortgages. They cannot escape the violence because they cannot find another home.
The fight for redistribution should be important to us as socialists – a greater distribution of goods to the people who produce them and a huge part of them are women who are paid a pittance like nurses, cleaners, seamstresses, shop assistants, for example.
The more lack of kindergartens and social homes we have, the more this burden is transferred to the shoulders of women. This reinforces the conservatism that this role of women is natural.
As leftists we must also address the rise of fascism. Fascist ideology, embodied in a variety of organizations, reaches dangerous proportions. There is an escalation of fascist violence. There was the legitimization of fascist parties by the GERB party, which they brought into power and allowed their narratives to enter the public discourse. And to become the dominant perspective on how to read social problems. An example of this is the treatment of migrants and LGBTI people who present themselves as a threat. When the BSP cooperates with organizations that support the Onion March, one should think about which side of history it is on. There is a complete shift of the political elite to the right, which serves capital.”
A divided society is easily managed. Diana Yankulova summed up the discussion by wishing the politicians who will stand for left-wing decisions courage.
To contact the Group of the Progressive Alliance of Socialists and Democrats in the EP:
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