>Kiril Petkov, 41, emerged as the surprise winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary elections – already the third this year – with his party “We Continue Change,” which was only founded in the fall. Like his fellow campaigner Asen Vasilev, Petkov lived in the U.S. for years; both have degrees from the elite U.S. university Harvard. At the head of a colorful four-party coalition, Petkov, an entrepreneur, wants to be elected head of government in corruption-plagued Bulgaria as early as next week. Petkov gave his first major interview to SPIEGEL in Sofia since winning the election.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Petkov, is the coalition alliance in place that will elect you as the new head of government?
Petkov: Not quite yet. But we have completed the work of 18 working groups – whose negotiations, by the way, were broadcast online, transparently for everyone. This is a first in Bulgaria. We are trying to bring together, point by point, four parties with very different historical backgrounds and different programs …
SPIEGEL: … including the Socialists, the successors to the Bulgarian Communist Party.Petkov: Yes, but what counts is: I want to take over the office of prime minister, while my comrade-in-arms Asen Vasilev is to become finance minister and deputy prime minister with responsibility for energy and the economy, a kind of super minister.
SPIEGEL: Two Harvard graduates at the helm of the poorest country in the EU – a symbol that things are to look up from now on?
Petkov: Asen Vasilev and I have known each other since 2006, from Harvard University. And since then, we have been lecturing here in Bulgaria according to the so-called “Harvard program”. So for 15 years we have been preaching what could become of this small, wonderful country of Bulgaria. Politically, Asen and I work according to the four-eyes principle – no decision is made that has not been approved by the other. That serves the purpose of control.
SPIEGEL: In Western Europe, you are seen as a beacon of hope in the fight against endemic corruption because of your experience abroad.
Petkov: In parts of Eastern Europe, too, by the way.
SPIEGEL: Where would you place yourself and your still very young party in the political spectrum?
Petkov: We are not easy to classify, not on the right, not on the left. That’s a good thing. Because if you still believe in ideologies, you’re giving your brain a break.
SPIEGEL: What is the brand essence of “We Continue the Change”?
Petkov: We are a brand new party, but voters have been able to test Asen and me as ministers in the interim government this year. They have taken our stand against corruption as a promise. Our hallmark should be that we keep our promises. We cannot promise wealth for everyone, but we can promise hard work and zero tolerance for corruption. We will apply the law without mercy. We want to turn the stain of corruption on Bulgaria into a positive – as a trademark of a country that overcame this problem.
SPIEGEL: Many others have promised that before you.
Petkov: The difference is – we did our thing from the very beginning. Our party rejects financial support from interested patrons, just as it rejects personnel support or the offer of guaranteed votes en bloc. There is no one who can call me and say “Kiril, you have to do this or that now.” Why can we afford to do that? Many people from our core group are graduates of the Harvard program here in Bulgaria. Lawyers, doctors, people from the IT sector.
SPIEGEL: Boyko Borisov, who ruled for almost twelve years and was formerly the bodyguard of CP leader Todor Zhivkov, is still the second strongest force in the country with his party. His supporters are in the civil service and in the intelligence services. How do you intend to combat this?
Petkov: In the 32 years since the fall of communism in 1989, the parties have changed, but the same political masterminds, well-connected people with money, have always dominated the stage. We haven’t gotten involved with any of them. Will they be able to stop us? We will see.
SPIEGEL: Do you support a prosecutorial investigation against ex-Prime Minister Borisov and his entourage?
Petkov: We support a fully independent, effective judiciary. I am against calling for investigations against any particular person. But we would need a truly unassailable prosecutor general. The best thing would be for the current incumbent to resign voluntarily.
SPIEGEL: Your optimism seems infectious and naive at the same time.
Petkov: Who would have thought eight months ago that we would win the elections? We are optimists, that’s true. But most officials in the ministries are not corrupt. It’s a matter of a few. We have to weed out those few bad apples. However, we’re not governing alone, and this coalition will be a complicated affair.
SPIEGEL: The Socialists are to get the ministries of social affairs, agriculture, tourism and industry. The party of the dazzling showmaster Slavi Trifonov must also be satisfied. How do you plan to achieve quick success with this motley crew?
Petkov: First of all, we hope that the treaty will be signed quickly. Ideally, Bulgaria will have a new government by the end of next week. We have no time to lose. As far as the Socialists are concerned, they haven’t been in power for a long time, which means that they haven’t been close to the power centers, which is an advantage.SPIEGEL: The party of former Prime Minister Borisov, which is largely responsible for Bulgaria’s desolate state, is a member of the European People’s Party and thus a sister party of the German CDU. What does that mean in terms of the alleged Western value system?
Petkov: We ask ourselves the same question. What values does this party family actually stand for? Is there illicit trading of votes in the European Parliament in return for turning a blind eye to corruption? In the case of Bulgaria, that seems to me to have been the case. Whoever grants EU funds without checking whether the rule of law functions in the recipient country increases the problems. We have to talk about this, Bulgaria will no longer be a silent partner at the extreme edge of Europe. One point, by the way, was that Boyko Borissov could not speak English.
SPIEGEL: How solid is Bulgarian democracy when a party like yours emerges victorious from an election just a few weeks after it was founded?
Petkov: The good news is that the voters were fed up with everything else. In the four months that Asen and I were ministers, we exposed the big fraud scheme of the Bulgarian Development Bank, as well as fraud in road construction projects. The people, it’s obvious, want change.SPIEGEL: Even your neighbor Romania, devastated by decades of Ceaușescu rule, is now doing better economically than Bulgaria.
Petkov: It’s because of the wrong way we handle subsidies. Either they go into private pockets or into the wrong projects. But in the four months that we were part of a transitional government, economic growth was ten percent.
SPIEGEL: What drives you personally?
Petkov: Looking at the potential of this country. We are part of the world’s largest domestic market. We have good people. It bugs me to see the untapped potential. I can’t stand hearing about Bulgaria as the “poorest country in the EU.”
SPIEGEL: Young, well-educated people are leaving Bulgaria.
Petkov: We have to bring them back. My party’s parliamentarians, for example, are often returnees.
SPIEGEL: Bulgaria has the highest per capita death rate for Covid-19 victims and the lowest vaccination rate within the EU. What do you want to do about it?
Petkov: We have a very clear strategy – people are poorly informed, don’t trust the system and often have pre-existing conditions. We need to educate, bring in the best experts, launch aggressive marketing campaigns, create incentives for specific target groups.SPIEGEL: Does Bulgaria really want to join the eurozone?
Petkov: Absolutely. We need to explain the pros and cons to our population. We need to clarify how long the transition phase can last, during which there will be both currencies. We want the euro as soon as possible, without overrunning our fellow citizens in the process. People need to understand that after that we will be able to attract investment to Bulgaria much more easily because the risks of currency fluctuations will be eliminated.
SPIEGEL: Your country is blocking the start of EU accession negotiations with northern Macedonia for flimsy reasons. Are you going to change anything about that?
Petkov: We need to set up working groups, they should sit down for six months so that it’s not just the nationalists on both sides who are calling the shots. Why are there no flights, no train connections between Sofia and Skopje? Let’s talk more about the economy than about different interpretations of common history. Or about northern Macedonian textbooks that say Bulgarians are fascists. If we give the green light to accession negotiations now without discussion, it will only strengthen the nationalists of both camps. We rely on negotiations instead of propaganda.
*** Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***
Good luck neighbors.
Perhaps this time.
I hope they succeed, but it will be difficult.
These anticorruption politicians and parties were not very successful until now in most of the places they had governed. Anticorruption is a catchy phrase in corrupt countries, but in many cases this was their only thing. Governing a country, especially a very poor one, requires shrewd economic policies to actually lift people out of poverty. If anticorruption is not accompanied by a decrease in poverty, wage increases and so on, people will get tired.
Romania is a perfect example. Our former president and his party (PD and then PDL- Liberal Democratic Party) won with an anticorruption campaign. Besides the fact that they were one of the most corrupt govts. that we had after 1989, they pursued an aggressive plan of weakening the unions, useless investments (the sport centers built in villages where every young person left were well known in Romania) and the politics of attracting companies with low wages. All this mix backfired. The party technically no longer exists and it was incorporated in the Liberal Party just to “unify the right” (somehow, anticorruption parties are almost always associating with the right). That had the effect to trivialize the idea of anticorruption and people started voting with corrupt parties that increased wages and pensions.
Wait, a bulgarian politician that is not old, fat and bald?
What the…
Applying it without *favour* is the real challenge.
For people actually interested.
This guy is the epitome of hypocracy. He literally broke the constitution ( the constitutional court confirmed it ) by lying in his declaration that he has only Bulgarian citizenship. When that became a scandal he continued lying blatantly that he’s “just a Bulgarian citizen”. I’m not even mentioning his appointments to high public enterprise positions, where the guy appointed his wife’s best friend, who proceeded to sign not beneficial contracts with private firms and was fired.
6 comments
>Kiril Petkov, 41, emerged as the surprise winner of Bulgaria’s parliamentary elections – already the third this year – with his party “We Continue Change,” which was only founded in the fall. Like his fellow campaigner Asen Vasilev, Petkov lived in the U.S. for years; both have degrees from the elite U.S. university Harvard. At the head of a colorful four-party coalition, Petkov, an entrepreneur, wants to be elected head of government in corruption-plagued Bulgaria as early as next week. Petkov gave his first major interview to SPIEGEL in Sofia since winning the election.
SPIEGEL: Mr. Petkov, is the coalition alliance in place that will elect you as the new head of government?
Petkov: Not quite yet. But we have completed the work of 18 working groups – whose negotiations, by the way, were broadcast online, transparently for everyone. This is a first in Bulgaria. We are trying to bring together, point by point, four parties with very different historical backgrounds and different programs …
SPIEGEL: … including the Socialists, the successors to the Bulgarian Communist Party.Petkov: Yes, but what counts is: I want to take over the office of prime minister, while my comrade-in-arms Asen Vasilev is to become finance minister and deputy prime minister with responsibility for energy and the economy, a kind of super minister.
SPIEGEL: Two Harvard graduates at the helm of the poorest country in the EU – a symbol that things are to look up from now on?
Petkov: Asen Vasilev and I have known each other since 2006, from Harvard University. And since then, we have been lecturing here in Bulgaria according to the so-called “Harvard program”. So for 15 years we have been preaching what could become of this small, wonderful country of Bulgaria. Politically, Asen and I work according to the four-eyes principle – no decision is made that has not been approved by the other. That serves the purpose of control.
SPIEGEL: In Western Europe, you are seen as a beacon of hope in the fight against endemic corruption because of your experience abroad.
Petkov: In parts of Eastern Europe, too, by the way.
SPIEGEL: Where would you place yourself and your still very young party in the political spectrum?
Petkov: We are not easy to classify, not on the right, not on the left. That’s a good thing. Because if you still believe in ideologies, you’re giving your brain a break.
SPIEGEL: What is the brand essence of “We Continue the Change”?
Petkov: We are a brand new party, but voters have been able to test Asen and me as ministers in the interim government this year. They have taken our stand against corruption as a promise. Our hallmark should be that we keep our promises. We cannot promise wealth for everyone, but we can promise hard work and zero tolerance for corruption. We will apply the law without mercy. We want to turn the stain of corruption on Bulgaria into a positive – as a trademark of a country that overcame this problem.
SPIEGEL: Many others have promised that before you.
Petkov: The difference is – we did our thing from the very beginning. Our party rejects financial support from interested patrons, just as it rejects personnel support or the offer of guaranteed votes en bloc. There is no one who can call me and say “Kiril, you have to do this or that now.” Why can we afford to do that? Many people from our core group are graduates of the Harvard program here in Bulgaria. Lawyers, doctors, people from the IT sector.
SPIEGEL: Boyko Borisov, who ruled for almost twelve years and was formerly the bodyguard of CP leader Todor Zhivkov, is still the second strongest force in the country with his party. His supporters are in the civil service and in the intelligence services. How do you intend to combat this?
Petkov: In the 32 years since the fall of communism in 1989, the parties have changed, but the same political masterminds, well-connected people with money, have always dominated the stage. We haven’t gotten involved with any of them. Will they be able to stop us? We will see.
SPIEGEL: Do you support a prosecutorial investigation against ex-Prime Minister Borisov and his entourage?
Petkov: We support a fully independent, effective judiciary. I am against calling for investigations against any particular person. But we would need a truly unassailable prosecutor general. The best thing would be for the current incumbent to resign voluntarily.
SPIEGEL: Your optimism seems infectious and naive at the same time.
Petkov: Who would have thought eight months ago that we would win the elections? We are optimists, that’s true. But most officials in the ministries are not corrupt. It’s a matter of a few. We have to weed out those few bad apples. However, we’re not governing alone, and this coalition will be a complicated affair.
SPIEGEL: The Socialists are to get the ministries of social affairs, agriculture, tourism and industry. The party of the dazzling showmaster Slavi Trifonov must also be satisfied. How do you plan to achieve quick success with this motley crew?
Petkov: First of all, we hope that the treaty will be signed quickly. Ideally, Bulgaria will have a new government by the end of next week. We have no time to lose. As far as the Socialists are concerned, they haven’t been in power for a long time, which means that they haven’t been close to the power centers, which is an advantage.SPIEGEL: The party of former Prime Minister Borisov, which is largely responsible for Bulgaria’s desolate state, is a member of the European People’s Party and thus a sister party of the German CDU. What does that mean in terms of the alleged Western value system?
Petkov: We ask ourselves the same question. What values does this party family actually stand for? Is there illicit trading of votes in the European Parliament in return for turning a blind eye to corruption? In the case of Bulgaria, that seems to me to have been the case. Whoever grants EU funds without checking whether the rule of law functions in the recipient country increases the problems. We have to talk about this, Bulgaria will no longer be a silent partner at the extreme edge of Europe. One point, by the way, was that Boyko Borissov could not speak English.
SPIEGEL: How solid is Bulgarian democracy when a party like yours emerges victorious from an election just a few weeks after it was founded?
Petkov: The good news is that the voters were fed up with everything else. In the four months that Asen and I were ministers, we exposed the big fraud scheme of the Bulgarian Development Bank, as well as fraud in road construction projects. The people, it’s obvious, want change.SPIEGEL: Even your neighbor Romania, devastated by decades of Ceaușescu rule, is now doing better economically than Bulgaria.
Petkov: It’s because of the wrong way we handle subsidies. Either they go into private pockets or into the wrong projects. But in the four months that we were part of a transitional government, economic growth was ten percent.
SPIEGEL: What drives you personally?
Petkov: Looking at the potential of this country. We are part of the world’s largest domestic market. We have good people. It bugs me to see the untapped potential. I can’t stand hearing about Bulgaria as the “poorest country in the EU.”
SPIEGEL: Young, well-educated people are leaving Bulgaria.
Petkov: We have to bring them back. My party’s parliamentarians, for example, are often returnees.
SPIEGEL: Bulgaria has the highest per capita death rate for Covid-19 victims and the lowest vaccination rate within the EU. What do you want to do about it?
Petkov: We have a very clear strategy – people are poorly informed, don’t trust the system and often have pre-existing conditions. We need to educate, bring in the best experts, launch aggressive marketing campaigns, create incentives for specific target groups.SPIEGEL: Does Bulgaria really want to join the eurozone?
Petkov: Absolutely. We need to explain the pros and cons to our population. We need to clarify how long the transition phase can last, during which there will be both currencies. We want the euro as soon as possible, without overrunning our fellow citizens in the process. People need to understand that after that we will be able to attract investment to Bulgaria much more easily because the risks of currency fluctuations will be eliminated.
SPIEGEL: Your country is blocking the start of EU accession negotiations with northern Macedonia for flimsy reasons. Are you going to change anything about that?
Petkov: We need to set up working groups, they should sit down for six months so that it’s not just the nationalists on both sides who are calling the shots. Why are there no flights, no train connections between Sofia and Skopje? Let’s talk more about the economy than about different interpretations of common history. Or about northern Macedonian textbooks that say Bulgarians are fascists. If we give the green light to accession negotiations now without discussion, it will only strengthen the nationalists of both camps. We rely on negotiations instead of propaganda.
*** Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version) ***
Good luck neighbors.
Perhaps this time.
I hope they succeed, but it will be difficult.
These anticorruption politicians and parties were not very successful until now in most of the places they had governed. Anticorruption is a catchy phrase in corrupt countries, but in many cases this was their only thing. Governing a country, especially a very poor one, requires shrewd economic policies to actually lift people out of poverty. If anticorruption is not accompanied by a decrease in poverty, wage increases and so on, people will get tired.
Romania is a perfect example. Our former president and his party (PD and then PDL- Liberal Democratic Party) won with an anticorruption campaign. Besides the fact that they were one of the most corrupt govts. that we had after 1989, they pursued an aggressive plan of weakening the unions, useless investments (the sport centers built in villages where every young person left were well known in Romania) and the politics of attracting companies with low wages. All this mix backfired. The party technically no longer exists and it was incorporated in the Liberal Party just to “unify the right” (somehow, anticorruption parties are almost always associating with the right). That had the effect to trivialize the idea of anticorruption and people started voting with corrupt parties that increased wages and pensions.
Wait, a bulgarian politician that is not old, fat and bald?
What the…
Applying it without *favour* is the real challenge.
For people actually interested.
This guy is the epitome of hypocracy. He literally broke the constitution ( the constitutional court confirmed it ) by lying in his declaration that he has only Bulgarian citizenship. When that became a scandal he continued lying blatantly that he’s “just a Bulgarian citizen”. I’m not even mentioning his appointments to high public enterprise positions, where the guy appointed his wife’s best friend, who proceeded to sign not beneficial contracts with private firms and was fired.