site.btaAlliance for Rights and Freedoms Warns that Stirring Ethnic Tensions Is Dangerous

The Alliance for Rights and Freedoms (ARF) warned in a declaration on Wednesday that attempts to create ethnic tensions in Bulgaria are dangerous.

The declaration came on Human Rights Day amid pro-government demonstrations led by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning, during which speakers have raised the slogan "No to hatred!" and called against bringing up "the ethnic card." The demonstrations were organized in response to mass protests against the budget bills for 2026.

Presenting the ARF declaration, the parliamentary group's floor leader Hayri Sadakov said from the National Assembly rostrum: "Today, when Bulgaria is an inseparable part of the European Union and claims to be a modern, democratic state, the revival of the ethnic card as a tool for political bargaining is not only retrograde, it is dangerous — dangerous for the institutions, dangerous for national security, dangerous for democracy itself."

Sadakov noted: "As a people, we are well aware of the price of violated human rights — from the forced assimilation of the past to the political experiments of the following decades."

He went on to say: "Thirty-five years ago Bulgarian society chose the path of peaceful coexistence, mutual respect and democratic dialogue. That choice laid the foundations of the so-called Bulgarian ethnic model, a concept that ensured equality and the inclusion of all communities in the political life of the country, as well as adequate political representation. It became established as a model of tolerance and harmony, recognized not only in Bulgaria and the Balkans, but also across Europe and the world."

"Unfortunately, in recent times this model has been used by Delyan Peevski [the leader of MRF-New Beginning] for his own political survival in order to preserve his behind-the-scenes influence over power, which he has used chiefly for intimidation, for granting protection and for maintaining dependence," Sadakov commented. He said that human rights cannot be traded for political support, that they are not part of the toolkit of election campaigns, but are universal, inviolable and not subject to partisan appropriation.

"On the day on which we mark Human Rights Day, the ARF condemns every form of abuse of ethnic and religious identity for party ends," Sadakov said. "We reject attempts to divide society through fear, manipulation or false oppositions. We insist that all institutions protect the rights of every citizen, regardless of ethnicity, religion, language or political choice. We call for human rights in Bulgaria to be not merely rhetoric, but real policy, a guarantee rather than a promise."

"Bulgaria has every capacity to continue to be an example of peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, but this requires resolve, a willingness to distinguish genuine protection of rights from their political misuse," Sadakov said.

"On this day we must remember: democracy crumbles when human rights become a currency for trading; it is built when human rights are established as a fundamental principle. We are obliged to choose the latter forever," the ARF floor leader said.