Send to Kindle
Many Bulgarians probably woke up Tuesday and switched on their TVs and started wondering why they were seeing Culture Minister Vezhdi Rashidov commenting on a piece of highly controversial environmental legislation.
The ones who started wondering did not have to wait long for their answer – the faux pas generator went full steam in no time. Blunder after blunder, after blunder, after blunder, all in a semi-coherent stream of consciousness, served on a topic not even remotely related to Rashidov's portfolio. Question is, if Ministers keep filling the funny newspaper sections and TV programs rather than the pages and programs devoted to their line of work, do they still count as Ministers? Or as infotainment?
Commenting on a set of amendments to Bulgaria's Forestry Act facilitating the construction of ski lifts and runs without a change of land use, the Culture Minister argued that three days of mass protests at the Orlov Bridge junction had been "some 100-200 people turning the lives of 2 million Sofianites into a nightmare". "Unacceptable!"
He went on to say that the protesters had been wearing suspiciously nice T-shirts and carrying suspiciously nice posters "that must have cost a pretty penny."Rashidov spent some 4-5 sentences evasively elaborating on the idea of covert sponsors of the environmental activists.
Then he rushed to assure people: "Nothing to worry about – retired citizens will have their forests to stroll up. It won't be like, the whole forest disappearing, but there need to be facilities."
And then came the cr?me de la cr?me: "I cannot afford to send my grandchildren skiing in Austria all the time, it is a little too costly," Rashidov remarked, straight after which he admitted that ski holidays in Austria were cheaper than in Bulgaria and noted that he wanted the two girls to be able to practice their beloved winter sports in Vitosha so that they could drop by their grandfather's nearby house for a cup of tea.
To the people lacking background knowledge, who may have failed to spot Rashidov's impudence on first hearing, it should be specified that the over-construction in Bulgarian Black Sea resorts and Bulgarian mountain resorts made both summer and winter vacations too expensive for ordinary locals. The star-studded, all-inclusive holiday villages turned unaffordable for a wide majority of Bulgarians and increasingly inhospitable for foreigners due to the noise and congestion.
To cut the long story short, while it was obvious that last week's protesters were painting their posters in front of the cameras of a number of media outlets, it still remains obscure what keeps propping up Rashidov at his job after series of widely-publicized indecencies. Mr. Rashidov, it is not Bulgaria's environmentally-minded youths who are wearing suspiciously nice "T-shirts", it is you who are occupying too nice a post!
We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!
As the year draws to a close, transport services face adjustments, with some bus operators in Bulgaria suspending travel from December 31st afternoon until midday on January 1st.
Ivo Atanasov, MP from "We Continue the Change" stated that he will propose to his parliamentary group to vote on the resignation of Vezhdi Rashidov as Speaker of the Parliament
The Minister of Tourism Hristo Prodanov will demand the repeal of the green certificates for the open parts of the restaurants in the winter resorts.
Vezhdi Rashidov opens his exhibition at the Plovdiv City Gallery.
The deputies elected Galina Georgieva as a member of the CEM from the quota of the parliament.
The number of trips to Bulgaria’s mountains rose significantly, analysis of Eurostat about the development of tourism in 2017 show, reported the Bulgarian National Radio.
If we look at history, there are not many cases in which relations between Bulgaria and Russia at the state level were as bad as they are at the moment.
The term “Iron Curtain” was not coined by Winston Churchill, but it was he who turned it into one of the symbols of the latter part of the twentieth century by using it in his famous Fulton speech of 1946.
Hardly anything could be said in defense of the new government's ideological profile, which is quite blurry; at the same time much can be disputed about its future "pro-European" stance.
Look who is lurking again behind the corner – the tandem of Advent International and Deutsche Bank, respectively the buyer of the Bulgarian Telecom Company in 2004 and the advisor of the Bulgarian government in the sweetest deal of the past decade, seem t
We have seen many times this circus which is being played out during the entire week and it only shows one thing - there is no need of a caretaker government in Bulgaria.
You have certainly noticed how many times President Rosen Plevneliev used the phrase “a broad-minded person” referring to almost every member of his caretaker government.
UN Happiness Report: Bulgaria's Astonishing Leap in Rankings
Bulgaria: 3 Regions With Lowest Life Expectancy - EU Report 2022
