“And that is said to be the case even though his ruling party GERB doesn't really seem to enjoy any political opponents – the theatrically collaborationist opposition in the face of the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the ethnic Turkish Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) seems to be clapping hands the way the Bulgarian Agrarian People's Unon (BZNS), the officially-appointed opposition, applauded the rule of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the past.”

Just a short comment regarding the relationship between the BZNS and the BKP (Bulgarian Communist’s Party) during the communists regime in Bulgaria or, as described in ideological terms, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (the working class). With the execution of Nikola Petkov in 1947 (as an anti-communist and leader of BZNS and one of the founders of the Fatherland Front) there was no opposition left to the new regime and the “harmonious relationship” between the BKP, the party of the industrial working class, and the BZNS, the party of the agricultural worker, was established.

The unity between those two groups was represented by the iconic symbol of the “hammer and sickle”: the hammer standing for the industrial working class (proletariat) and the sickle representing the agricultural workers (the peasantry).

To claim that BZNS was the officially-appointed opposition to the BKP during the 45 years of Dictatorship in Bulgaria is odd attempt of revisionism. Obviously Mr. Dikov was looking for way to draw parallel between a discredited, defunct regime of the past and the present one by tapping in the anti communist’s sentiments of the population, regardless of the facts.A sloppy argumentation, at its best.

Well done, Ivan. Good piece. Blagodarya.

This unusally semi-coherent piece, whilst still a rambling monologue was doing reasonably ok until we got to this part:

"I am now inclined to agree with those who allege that if Bulgaria wasn't a member of the European Union, with all of its faltering, we would have a full-fledged authoritarian regime – not unlike the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in Syria"

Come on now, if you want anyone to start to take you seriously as a journalist then you need to do better than this hysterical nonsense.....

My only question, Ivan---in connection with Your "I am now inclined to agree...that if BG...[then] we would have a full-fledged authoritarian regime – not unlike the regime of ...Assad in Syria"---why You, Ivan,
why "Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov [who "tackles now -on behalf of the western democracies", sure,- the Assad' regime] do
not refer to ANY of Arab monarchies (Qatar, Saudia, Bahrain, Oman),
where authoritarian regimes are even more furious, savage, fierce...
and where any smallest unrest is ruthlessly suppressed? You are not inclined to agree with it? No desire to irritate The Overseas Boss (who is the big friend of these super-democratic regimes today), Ivan?