A few days ago Europe marked 25 years since the fall of the Berlin wall and the reinstatement of freedom and democracy over half of the continent’s territory. How much progress has Bulgaria made in that time? An outside view – that of France’s ambassador to Sofia, His Excellency Xavier Lapeyre de Cabanes who is serving a second term in office in Sofia, his first term being at the beginning of the 1990’s:

“Bulgaria has come a long way,” The French ambassador says. “Twenty-five years ago few could have imagined that the country would now be a member of the EU and of NATO and would be getting ready to take over the Presidency of the Council of the EU in 2018. I am not saying that everything here is just fine, but Bulgaria really has traveled a road that is impressive.”

Nevertheless, recent surveys show that Bulgarians are far from happy with what has been achieved and many look back to the past with nostalgia.

“To my mind this nostalgia is rooted in an insufficient knowledge of the communist past,” says ambassador de Cabanes. “When I was here some 20 years ago, people were talking about the need to turn the page of the past. But before that can be done it needs to be read, something the communists did not want to see happen. That is the reason why young people today know nothing about communism, its vices or crimes. And the reason why people are not happy with what has been achieved is rooted in the fact that the transition to a market economy was not done wisely and was chaotic. Or if there was any order at all, it was dictated by circles considered to be close to the secret services which seized the little wealth there was. The judiciary never got off to a normal working start, nor did the police. Corruption was rife. Crime groupings were the first to take advantage of this chaos and accumulated wealth illegally. Iliya Pavlov’s Multigroup acquired immense power. And of course, all this has given rise to much disappointment today.”

Twenty-five years ago, a memorable breakfast French President Francois Mitterand had with 12 Bulgarian dissidents at the beginning of 1989 gave a boost to the resistance against the regime, then in its infancy. Has Bulgarian civil society now grown stronger?

“The totalitarian regime would resort to any means to stop people from getting themselves organized,” the diplomat says. “Because that could put an end to the regime. I think that things now are very different. Last year’s prolonged protests which stopped Delyan Peevksi from heading the State Agency for National Security signaled a public reaction, perhaps not organized well enough, but still, a reaction by citizens who have come to realize that united they stand tall and capable of opposing the people wielding power.”

English: Milena Daynova