Bulgaria Protests 2020

2020 was and still is an eventful year - pandemic, protests, orange men, you name it. This talk is a comprehensive overview about yet another tumult: the protests that occured in Bulgaria in 2020, months of demonstrations against an European Union member state government that were largely unacknowledged in the rest of the EU - from the perspective of an expat and an involved small scale activist on the fringe.

The goal is to convey to some extent my expat experience and acquired updated knowledge I made while trying to figure out what exactly was going on as the protests erupted in my home country, who were the actors, what do they want. This will include a marathon though a brief historical background, introduction to some of the main political and criminal actors, societal factors, the story of how a national flag on a beach in Rossenez started it all among others, how the protests developed and finally the EU's position or the lack of such. In order to give you a better info and different perspectives in this time slot, I've also invited to join: - Rosen, journalist: Why Bulgaria is on the last place of media freedom in EU? - Sabina Hilaiel, an Assistant professor. Her research focuses on the influence of the EU on democratic transitions in the post communist world - Radka, lawyer, former emigrant and active protester with a comment on the Bulgarian judiciary