Georgi Harizanov (46) is the founder and has been the CEO of the Bulgarian Institute of Right-Wing Politics (IRWP) since 2014. Spending over a decade as a TV producer, TV host, CEO of TV Evropa and then CEO of Euronews Bulgaria, he has become the most recognized conservative speaker and centre-right political commentator in Bulgaria. He is a regular author in the most recognized media outlets; he hosts the Legends podcast with it’s popular The Conservative Team shows; and a fellow and contributor of the Conservative.bg media platform. He is a graduate of the Danish College in Sofia, and specialized at the Harvard Medical School and Harvard Kennedy School of Politics.
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First of all, tell us about the political, economic, and social situation in Bulgaria.
Since 2021, the end of the third term of Boyko Borissov—the leader of the biggest centre-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB), which started as a Christian Democratic populist movement some 18 years ago—, Bulgaria has been thrown into a constant whirl of elections and political insecurity. GERB won 5 of the 7 parliamentary elections since then, but by becoming a symbol of the status quo it often remained isolated and unable to form a government.
That led to a number of caretaking governments and a sense of political crisis, which is not possible to be solved anytime soon. After all the revolutionary projects had failed, GERB won the elections just a month ago, and now Boyko Borissov is once again trying to form a stable government and get back on track regarding the main political challenges.
The party’s isolation is mostly of the past, and this time the task looks way more possible. The majority of the Bulgarian citizens and society as a whole want a stable and predictable government, as people are tired and repulsed by the revolutionary madness of the past three years.
The country has been in an international isolation ever since and we are no longer called ‘Brussels of the Balkans’ as we were up to 2021. There are budget issues, high inflation, and problems with the Euro funds and the Plan for Recovery and Resilience. So, in general terms, Bulgaria is trying to find its way out of the political crisis created by globalist revolutionaries.
You are the CEO of the Institute of Right-Wing Politics in Bulgaria. What can your country bring to the conservative world?
I am proud to say that Bulgaria is a multicultural, multi-ethnic and extremely tolerant society. Being the oldest state in Europe and having the oldest inhabited city in Europe, Plovdiv, only shows for how long this society has been preserved. At the same time, we are extremely cautious and sensitive concerning the subjects of tradition, values, religion, family, and homeland. We have kept our borders safe, just like our friends in Hungary; we have stopped illegal immigration; we have thrown the radical Islamists in jail; and we have kept our cities, our streets, our way of life and everything we believe in safe from foreign influence or foreign enemies.
‘We are a very friendly and tolerant, but also a very conservative society’
At the same time, you have the church, the cathedral, the synagogue and the mosque just 200 metre from each other in the centre of our capital city Sofia. There is virtually no antisemitism or pro-Hamas rallies here. We are a very friendly and tolerant, but also a very conservative society. Overthrowing the Istanbul Convention and voting for the recent law banning LGBTQ propaganda from our schools are both proof of that.
Our conservative movement won the public debate in both cases with 95 to 5 per cent according to the polls. So our contribution to the conservative world might be the model of mutual respect and tolerance between the different ethnic and religious groups combined with the unbreakable will to preserve and to be proud of our history, tradition, culture, and Judaeo-Christian values.
Focusing on Europe, in the last elections the majority of Bulgarian representatives joined the People’s Party and Renew, there is only one MEP in ECR (from the party There Is Such a People), and no representative in Patriots. Why is that?
The last European elections were once again won by GERB, which is a loyal member of the EPP. There are multiple factors for that loyalty and partnership, and anyone who is aware of Boyko Borissov’s career and his relations with Angela Merkel, Nicolas Sarkozy, and in recent days Manfred Weber and Ursula von der Leyen is well informed about the reasons. GERB was created with the active help and assistance from the German political foundations Hanns Seidel and Konrad Adenauer, both related to the EPP, and these deep relations have remained very strong up until today. This is not to say that there are not conservative people within GERB and within the Bulgarian delegation in the EPP Group, but under Borissov’s leadership their loyalty to the EPP is and will be unquestionable.
From my perspective, GERB is leaning more to the right than most of the members of the EPP and its leadership, especially on border protection, fiscal responsibility, and traditional values. So only the future will show what the next generation of conservative or centre-right political leaders will decide regarding their European political family.
My personal political views are way more aligned with the Patriots than with the EPP as it is today. Because it is getting more and more difficult to formulate what the EPP is standing for. Their last eight years were just a spineless bow to the greens and the socialists. This is not the party of Wilfried Martens anymore.
Viktor Orbán has reiterated his support for Bulgaria to join the Schengen area together with Romania. What impact would this have on the country?
This would have a huge positive impact on Bulgaria. I want to thank Prime Minister Orbán, whom I am honoured to know in person, and all my Hungarian friends for the support and the hard work during the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the EU. PM Orbán promised to solve this one in favour of Bulgaria and Romania, and he delivered on that promise.
Regarding the impact—you just have to see the 10-kilometre-long queues of heavy trucks and the hundreds of cars waiting for hours, sometimes days, to cross the Bulgarian border with Romania or Greece. This was a gigantic waste of time and money for our transport industry, trade and tourism. Moreover, between EU members it was just crazy, and somewhat offensive.
No country that has protected its border, which is the first EU border on the way from the Middle East, deserved to be kept out of the Schengen area because of some internal political fights in the Netherlands or Austria. So once again: thank you, Hungarian Presidency and to PM Orbán. We welcome this development.
How is Viktor Orbán seen in Bulgaria?
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the most popular European political leader in Bulgaria. And during this year’s CPAC in Hungary I had the chance to tell that to him and to all of our Hungarian friends there. The recent polls showed some 65 per cent approval ratings for Mr Orbán in Bulgaria.
And this comes as no surprise in a traditional, conservative Christian society like ours. The way he stood his ground and preserved his country’s national interests is more and more serving as an example and inspiration for all the conservative politicians here and for our movement in particular.
‘Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is the most popular European political leader in Bulgaria’
Yes, there is the Open Society propaganda machine here working full time to condemn anyone outside of the globalist consensus of the leftists and the gender frauds, but the polls clearly show that once again these people are spending an incredible amount of money on their doomed woke agenda with no effect whatsoever.
In Hungary, the American ambassador has been described as an activist by the Hungarian government, as well as by many analysts, even by the possible successor Bryan Leib. Has something similar happened in Bulgaria?
Look, if it was up to me, I would have changed Pressman for Bryan Leib years ago. From my perspective, Bryan is a true friend of Hungary and the Hungarian people and has proven himself as a respectful ally, a devoted conservative, and a prominent politician with a deep knowledge for the world and Hungary in particular. You need friends and partners who respect you, not a political activist like Pressman who was constantly insulting the very country he was a guest of. Something similar happened to Bulgaria, so we know one like Pressman when we see him.
Finally, moving into the international sphere, how has Donald Trump’s victory been experienced in Bulgaria?
Well, we were thrilled, just like many of our conservative friends across Europe. We predicted it would happen. We firmly believe that this is the best thing that can happen to right-wing forces, conservative parties and movements all around the world.
But this is just us.
The mainstream media machine, sponsored by the all-democratic America for Bulgaria foundation, has lied all the time and continues doing so today. After their ‘predictions’ of the great Kamala victory have failed, these shameless, merciless chains of TV channels, websites and news outlets continued with their derogatory slogans, such as ‘Orange Man, Bad, Hitler, Nazi’ etc, and with their refined and sophisticated methods of cherry picking, bias confirmation and labelling everything outside of their leftist propaganda balloon as disinformation or misinformation. Paid by no one else than Putin himself, of course.
We respect, support, and salute the GOP and the 47th President of the US Donald Trump, but we are living and working in a very hostile and manipulative environment. And this environment is once again paid with American taxpayers’ dollars. This has to stop. I truly hope and believe that the Trump administration will stop it. And I will give it all to make it happen.
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