PM Denkov on the fight against corruption: Bulgaria is still looking for its heroes

The head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office, Laura Kövesi, is in Sofia. Her programme includes meetings with Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov, Deputy Prime Minister Mariya Gabriel and Minister of Interior Kalin Stoyanov.

"For many years, we have ignored what the level of financial abuse means for our own security," Laura Kövesi said in her speech at the forum "Anti-corruption, democratic sustainability and economic security" in Sofia on November 9.

She said that when it comes to corruption, it is very difficult to convince people how it affects their lives. In reality, it continues to be tolerated to a large extent and no country is completely immune, Kövesi added.

"Corruption can often become a matter of life and death and I believe our friends from Ukraine understood this a few years ago. If anyone should be aware of the danger, it is not only them, but us as well.

In my experience, the key is to win people's hearts and minds. It may be harder than it was a few years ago, especially because our democratic societies are now targets of misinformation. This leads to the spread of lies that are unparalleled to anything that has happened before. Now we have to put all our abilities to distinguish the lie from the truth, the good from the bad and really know what is fair," said the head of the European Public Prosecutor's Office.

Images by BGNES

Bulgaria is still looking for its heroes to stand up against corruption, Prime Minister Nikolai Denkov said. He reminded that important votes on judicial reform and the fight against corruption are due in the coming weeks and that the legal changes proposed by the government are fully coordinated with the European institutions.

"I hope that the National Assembly will be at the level we all expect and will complete the process that this same Assembly started 5 months ago. If we succeed, we will go into a completely different orbit of our European development.

Bulgaria in recent years has not been able to find its Falcone and its Kövessi, and this is having an impact. In recent years, our country has made remarkable changes in terms of the laws and structures that should fight corruption and make us a modern and developed democratic country. However, we are still looking for our heroes to lead these structures and to say that it cannot be like this any more. That is why it is very valuable that Mrs. Kövesi is back in Bulgaria - to inspire us that we should continue to work in this direction, to share her experience and to discuss again what we can do, on the Bulgarian side, to work even more actively in coordination with the European Public Prosecutor's Office," Denkov said.