Hundreds of laughing emojis, sarcastic memes, and angry posts flooded the identical statements in support of Delian Peevski, which were published at the same time by the regional council of “DPS – New Beginning” in Shumen and the municipality of Kaolinovo, governed by the deputy chairman of the party, Nida Ahmedov.
Social media literally “boiled over” after the identical statements were published on December 3 by the Shumen branch of Delian Peevski, who has been sanctioned for corruption by the US and the UK, and by the local authorities in the municipality of Kaolinovo. Under the slogan “No to hatred,” with absolutely identical text, party activists and municipal councilors in Kaolinovo declared “support for our leader Mr. Delian Peevski.” They declared that they do not support “attempts to provoke, incite hatred, and destroy dialogue in Bulgarian society” and expressed “gratitude to Mr. Peevski for not allowing Bulgarian citizens to be divided and pitted against each other—Bulgarians, Turks, Pomaks, Milets, Roma.”
Spontaneous copy-paste declarations of gratitude began to pour in, with the leader’s refrain “No to hatred.”
Incidentally, the same declarations rained down spontaneously on Wednesday from all local structures of the DPS-New Beginning. “These are like the communist party organizations of the past. They are competing to be the first to write a model declaration and express their love for the leader. It’s just pathetic,” wrote a citizen under the DPS-Shumen Facebook post, which gathered nearly 1,000 reactions and hundreds of comments in less than 24 hours.
People are furious about the playing of the ethnic card
In numerous comments on Facebook, people in the Shumen region openly expressed their anger at the use of the ethnic card, surprisingly played by Peevski after the large civil protests, when tens of thousands of Bulgarians demanded his removal from the political scene.
On December 3, Peevski made several statements about ethnic opposition and announced that his “Turkish, Pomak, and Roma brothers” had been insulted during the anti-government protests that took place on December 1. Later that day, when the co-chair of Democratic Bulgaria, Ivaylo Mirchev, asked him to explain the offensive statements made about him to journalists, Peevski hid in his office and, from a safe distance behind the backs of the National Security Service guards, shouted “No to hatred” several times.
It was not clear who was insulting his “Turkish, Pomak, and Roma brothers.”
This was followed by copy-paste statements from the structures of New Beginning, repeating their leader’s refrain “No to hatred.” The mayor of Kaolinovo, Nida Ahmedov, also joined in with the party statements, expressing gratitude on behalf of the “local municipal authorities” to “Mr. Peevski for not allowing Bulgarian citizens to be divided and pitted against each other – Bulgarians, Turks, Pomaks, Millets, Roma.” The declaration was published prominently on the Kaolinovo municipality website and on the municipality’s Facebook page.
This was followed by copy-paste statements from the structures of New Beginning, repeating their leader’s refrain “No to hatred.” The mayor of Kaolinovo, Nida Ahmedov, also joined in with the party statements, expressing gratitude on behalf of the “local municipal authorities” to “Mr. Peevski for not allowing Bulgarian citizens to be divided and pitted against each other – Bulgarians, Turks, Pomaks, Millets, Roma.” The declaration was published prominently on the Kaolinovo municipality website and on the municipality’s Facebook page.
“Hey mayor, who gives you the right to speak on behalf of the mayor’s office and the press about political declarations? Who do you represent?” asked Ayşe Hasan in a comment under the declaration. In response, another citizen commented ironically that “if I don’t support it, there will be no food, they will take the bone, otherwise I will be miserable. When he speaks on behalf of the village, the money is in his pocket.”
How will they grab it if there is no division – there are no Turks, there are no Bulgarians – you divide people and turn them against each other.
“There are no Turks, there are no Bulgarians—you are dividing people and turning them against each other,” wrote another angry resident of the region, calling out: “Hey, people, wake up—they have become masters at your expense!”
Another post says: “I am from the ethnic group. Don’t write on my behalf. I don’t see any ethnic hatred. Don’t play with fire. That is, there is hatred towards you thieving bastards.”
“Yesterday Erol Mumun, today Nida… You are not with the people, you are with the oligarchs!” “Yurushshh on copy paste hahaha…”, “All declarations are copy paste from the people of the DPS regional councils,” other citizens write under the declaration of the Kaolinov municipality officials.
The same angry reactions and ridicule flooded the statement by the regional council of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) in Shumen. “Just look, there are 169 thumbs up, the rest are laughter and anger, hahaha, clowns,” commented a Shumen resident on the reactions of citizens on Facebook. By the time of this post, the New Beginning publication had over 700 smiley emoticons and only 169 likes.
The few comments in support of the declarations were buried under sharp retorts. Sarcastic memes and insults, the mildest of which were “scum” and “traitors,” showed the attitude of the commenters, many of whom had Turkish names. “Scum!” (as they say in the DPS)! Your time in politics is over forever. That’s what the people say. You are not wanted!” “And you showed up too, he obviously worked hard… today he ordered you to support him or paid you with stolen money, don’t you wonder why the entire Bulgarian people hate him and you are afraid of him, I am sure that you hate him too, but you are afraid to admit it,” are some of the comments.
The most reposted comment under the statements is the following appeal: “In order to prevent a non-Muslim from playing the ethnic card and misleading Bulgarian citizens of the Muslim faith, I CLEARLY state that there is no language of hatred against Bulgarians, Turks, Pomaks, Roma, and Millets… Bulgarian citizens of the Muslim faith have the same rights as all other Bulgarian citizens and do not need a “defender” in the person of Peevski. This poor excuse must stop, because we have all been citizens of a free Europe for a long time and no one in Bulgaria is a “second-class” citizen. Bulgarian Muslims, regardless of whether they are of Turkish, Roma, or Pomak origin, are Bulgarian citizens with equal rights in our common Bulgaria. Enough with the division and fearmongering! This declaration is a disgrace to Bulgaria because there is no such thing!
