Famous Bulgarian on Hunger Strike: I Will Not Give Up, Govt to Resign Soon

Politics » DOMESTIC | July 4, 2013, Thursday // 16:19
Bulgaria: Famous Bulgarian on Hunger Strike: I Will Not Give Up, Govt to Resign Soon "I will not end my hunger strike before I achieve my goals,” Edvin Sugarev told private bTV channel. Photo by bTV

Edvin Sugarev, a poet, intellectual and former MP of the right-wing Union of Democratic Forces (UDF) party, has firmly refused to end his hunger strike against the socialist-led government nine days after its start.

“I receive emails from dozens of people, sing-ups have been launched in my support. People hang blue balloons on my door to show their support. But I am not what matters. What matters is that this country is sick and it should be healed. I will not end my hunger strike before I achieve my goals,” Sugarev told private bTV channel.

He forecast that within two weeks the embattled government of Plamen Oresharski will resign under pressure from the ongoing protests.

Ever since he began the hunger strike, Sugarev is not part of the protestors, who take to the streets every day calling for the cabinet resignation. But he says he is following closely every step of its ministers.

Looking back in time, throughout the painful transition period Bulgaria went though, Sugarev says he feels said.

"All goals in the name of which we put in so many efforts ended up empty of meaning. We built a fa?ade democracy, which does not satisfy anyone. I feel sad for the efforts I have wasted because I could have had a different and much more meaningful life," said the former MP.

As he launched his protest at the end of last month Sugarev said he was ready to starve to death in his protest.

The hunger strike, during which Sugarev will only be drinking water, is not the first protest of this kind for him. In 1993 he went on a hunger strike against then-President Zhelyo Zhelev, stirring controversy among right-wingers.

"Go in peace, Mr. Prime Minister! For a 12th consecutive day, thousands of Bulgarians have demanded your resignation, and you keep pretending you are not hearing their voices coming from below the windows of your office, that you do not understand their demands, and you cannot feel their insistence," Sugarev declared in an open letter to the media.

Sugarev accused Oresherski of pursuing opaque policies and of manipulating people into thinking that Bulgaria will descend into chaos if the government was ousted.

He drew attention to the ties of the Oresharski cabinet with oligarchs, comparing the current government to the government headed by the deceased Professor Lyuben Berov.

He went on to list all of Oresharski's inadequate appointments, including that of notorious media tycoon Delyan Peevski as head of the State Agency for National Security, DANS, that of Ivan Ivanov, whose ties with the organized criminal group SIC were exposed last week, as Deputy Interior Minister, and Foreign Minister Kristiyan Vigenin, who vowed to reinstate former collaborators of the communist-era State Security (DS) at diplomatic posts.

Sugarev concluded that the program of the Oresharski cabinet offered generous promises of "meager social bonuses."

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Tags: Edvin Sugarev, Bulgarian government, resignation, Plamen Oresharski, Union of Democratic Forces, hunger strike, Delyan Peevski, State Agency for National Security, DANS

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