#Rumen #Radev #triumphed #Shipka #preachers #nihilism #division
“Thank you all for unitedly protecting our national holiday from encroachment. The light of your pure thoughts banished the sticky political fog from the peaks of the Bulgarian past“. With such words President Rumen Radev addressed the multitude of people gathered on the historic Shipka peak to celebrate the national holiday March 3. The celebrations at the memorial peak were held under the patronage of the speaker of the parliament, Rosen Zhelyazkov (GERB), who was, however, booedunlike President Radev, who was greeted with applause from the crowd.
Although he spoke of unity, Radev’s speech was in the spirit of political complacency and indirect attacks on the political forces and their supporters, who wanted the date of the national holiday to be changed and instead of March 3 to May 24.
At last year’s celebrations, the president led the resistance against this initiative, declaring a “people’s movement” in defense of March 3, which a few months later was patented by his associate Vesela Lecheva as the name of a political party (PP Third March). To date, participants in the initiative claim that its purpose was only to prevent the constitutional change of the date of the national holiday. But at the same time they admit that such a movement would be successful only if Rumen Radev is personally involved in it. While he is president, however, Radev cannot engage openly with any party.
Greeted with applause and shouts of approval, Rumen Radev said in his speech that he was proud to see so many patriotic Bulgarians in Shipka and thanked the crowd for preserving March 3 as a national holiday:
“Today is a day to unite around our values, around the covenants of our ancestors. But this year, we won’t hide it, is different from the others. And that’s why I’m here. To thank all of you for united to protect our national a holiday from aggressions. The light of your pure thoughts drove away the sticky political fog from the peaks of the Bulgarian past. And we will not forget that the preachers of nihilism and division yielded to the power of the Third of March not out of conscience, not out of respect for our history, not out of respect for the bones of our ancestors, but thanks to you, to your categorical determination, to the huge number of Bulgarians. So thank youI!”
“Today, from this incredible peak, your messages are even clearer and stronger: We will not trample on our memory and we will not pass on the covenants of our ancestors. We will continue to defend the freedom of our conscience, the independence of our actions, the sovereignty and dignity of The fatherland.”
That part of Radev’s speech, in which he mentioned the Russian Emperor Alexander II, caused the greatest enthusiasm and thunderous applause: “Here, on the peak crowned with eternal glory, the feat of our militiamen, who stood side by side with the soldiers of the army of the Russian Emperor Alexander II, opened the way to the freedom of Bulgaria and right here, in front of the eyes of the whole world, with stone and blood was predestined our future.”
And on this year’s March 3, there were too many Russian flags flying on Mount Shipka.
The President of the National Assembly Rosen Zhelyazkovunder whose patronage the celebrations of the national holiday of the memorial peak are held, was whistled, and the word
In his speech, Zhelyazkov reminded that there is no other place that so symbolically embodies national pride and ideal:
“This peak is the Bulgarian Thermopylae. This peak cleans the shame from the forehead of Bulgaria, as grandfather Vazov says, Belasitsa Stara and Novy Batak – this is the place where Bulgaria is crowned with the wreaths of self-sacrifice of the Bulgarian militiamen. This land, our beloved Bulgaria, obliges us today to be wise, to overcome the daily routine in order to be worthy, worthy of those who gave their lives so that Bulgaria would survive from ruin to ruin, from century to century! Long live Bulgaria!”.
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