Our people want to hear sincere words that will reach their pains and joys –

/ world today news/ Vice President Margarita Popova’s speech at the conference “Bulgaria – threatened by neo-Ottomanism or a new bridge between East and West in the new geopolitical realities”.

Dear Presidents,

Dear colleagues,

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen,

I have the honor to speak before you. Today we are here to declare: Our country Bulgaria will not only be a bridge between the West and the East in the new geopolitical realities, but also a guarantor of this. Guarantor for the well-being of our peoples, for life in peace, freedom and democracy. We can achieve it with a modern national doctrine.

In contracts, memoranda and agreements, we invariably and openly declare our desire for understanding, cooperation, good neighborliness, mutual respect and security. We arrange in gradation concepts that we have carried over the centuries until today and which are the flesh of our national essence, self-knowledge and worldview. Through the “sacred language” of our ancestors, we have raised into a cult and sacredly keep beautiful words for our children – knowledge and enlightenment, home and family, faith, respect and a kind word, personal example and human dignity, trust and wisdom, respect, unity, agreement and reconciliation. These are our national interests, our national values, through which we have strengthened our statehood and security over the centuries, and which are at the foundation of the European system of virtues.

Today we are here to embrace with a warm word of hope our ever-wise people and to admit that we still do not manage to find that magnet, as our people want, to gather and ensnare the life-giving national energy for progress together. Just as we unequivocally defined our European place and future, in order to continue with real guarantees for the protection of human dignity.

Today we are here to say: we need a plan for the nation. We need a unifying philanthropic national doctrine to be a strong bridge between the West and the East in the new geopolitical realities.

Let us, with the language of the new day, speak out loud about a national ideal to turn into a cause. Our people want to hear sincere words that will reach their pains and joys here at home; it wants to be led by enlightened and reasonable people, caring, patriots.

My idea of ​​our national ideal and my political message to you today is: unity of Bulgarian citizens inside and outside the Motherland for the development and consolidation of a democratic, legal and social state, for well-being and security, for peace and progress in our country and in the region , for worthy participation in the construction of the European Union.

This is the only way, firmly standing on national, common human, and European values, we will easily formulate our national interests, which are woven into our identity and statehood, and their protection depends on the cohesion between us, on our mutual understanding and respect.

Security, social and spiritual cohesion for progress, recognition and respect for the rule of law are our national interests. By being guided by them, we will easily be able to identify the most important tasks to be solved in all spheres of our socio-political life and lead an enlightened, wise, strategically adequate domestic and foreign policy. We will create a tradition of conducting policies with continuity, flexibility, without complexes, realistic and pragmatic, taking into account the powerful dynamic global transformations on national and regional soil.

The national doctrine is actually to reflect our strategic worldview today – to see ourselves in the specific historical moment with our accumulated historical, social, political, psychological and cultural experience. The plan of the nation, our national doctrine should actually be a comprehensive strategic analysis to learn enlightened about possible risks and threats and to build reliable defense mechanisms in every area of ​​our socio-political life for the progress and well-being of the individual and the society us.

Our national doctrine is needed to see how in the future together we will create, preserve and exchange the energy of the cultural and historical values ​​created by human society. In short, our national doctrine will tell us how to participate in the future of humanity.

Our perspective today, of ourselves and of the world, is not the perspective of the 18th, 19th, or 20th centuries. Then we had our national ideals: for national self-awareness and self-affirmation, for an independent Bulgarian church, for a free and independent Bulgarian state, for the unification of the Bulgarian lands.

These ideals are accompanied by names, with personalities in our history – Paisius, Sophronius; Neophyte Bozveli, Hilarion Bulgarian; Rakovski, Levski, Botev; Gyorche Petrov, Gotse Delchev, Vladimir Vazov.

Today we need a national doctrine with an ideal and causes, subject to continuity, renewal of historical consciousness and saved from transitory exhausting and repulsive party political phenomena and passions. Only with a national doctrine, with an established strategic worldview, will we be able to participate with dignity in the changing and multidimensional external world, will we have weight in the international balance. I am convinced that the syndrome of “being taken care of by the great” condemns us to inaction, subservience or hostility.

In the European family based on values, will we finally have support to address our specific national and regional interests? I say yes! If they know our future modern unifying national doctrine inspired and followed by enlightened and devoted to the common good patriotic leaders.

With respect to you, this was my message and the beginning of this prestigious forum.

Thank you very much for your attention and have a good time at the conference!