Information on the Green Political Sector
At present, in Bulgaria there are four organizations that are both claiming to be working in the green political sphere and having legal court registration in compliance with the Parties' Law:
- The Green Party (EGP member), with Gortza Krustanova and Ivan Ivanov as Speakers and Alexander Karakachanov as Secretary;
- Party of the Greens, chaired by Valentin Simov.
- Political Party "The Greens" (observers in EGP), with Co-chairmen Borislav Sandov, Georg Tuparev and Stoyan Yotov. These names are according to the site of PP “The Greens”. However according to court registration and the filed in ECA (Court of Auditors) documents (http://erik.bulnao.government.bg/egfo/s1.aspx #) the persons are: Andrey Kovachev, Petko Kovachev and Denitsa Petrova. These three have not changed since the establishment of the party.
- Political Club ECOGLASNOST, chaired by Emil Georgiev.
The results of recent elections for local authorities - in October 2011, solely from independent participation, without considering coalitions in which the respective party may have participated, are the following:
1. The Green Party (EGP member) - 12 Councilors, 3 Mayors
2. Party of the Greens, chaired by Valentin Simov – 8 Councilors, 0 Mayor
3. Political Party "The Greens" (observers in EGP) – 4 Councilors, 0 Mayor
4. Political Club ECOGLASNOST – 0 Councilor, 0 Mayor
In our desire to reduce the tearing of the green political space in Bulgaria, the Green Party intends to launch a series of joint activities with the above-listed organizations. PP "The Greens" have not respond to this initiative, something which is not surprising in view of their overall behavior. In principle, all our attempts to collaborate with PP "The Greens" following the recommendations of the EGP Committee have come to nothing and have not received any official response on their part. Such was the result from our proposal for united action at the partial elections in Sofia and for standing up with shared initiatives on ecological problems. Moreover, it is our impression that in some cases the leadership of PP "The Greens" are inclined to back certain views only to work in contrast the GP position. Such was the case with our initiative to fight land and forests swaps and to pronounce them invalid. This is an issue concerning the tremendous robbery of state owned property worth of billions Euro. PP "The Greens" would not offer their solidarity to us, though they possess considerable political potential and an eventual support by them, along with the support of other organizations and people, could have possibly brought to the faster achievement of our target.
Unfortunately this style of behavior was more enhanced during the election campaign for local elections in October 2011 At times we had the impression that PP “The Greens” were throwing more effort to speak against the Green Party than to support their own candidates. This absurd behavior is largely due to the fact that they rely (rightly or wrongly) on support for this behavior by certain "factors" in the EGP.
Ultimately, it did nothing to contribute to the Election’2011 results, and, in Sofia it deprived us of the opportunity to have common presence in the Municipal Council. The only result of this lamentable behavior of the PP "The Greens" is that they are reinforcing their own image of extremists incapable of embracing new and progressive green ideas. Thus they tend to be followers in the path of notorious regressive Balkan political traditions that have historically brought so many sufferings to the peninsula.
