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'Door het tekenen van petitie van de erfpachterstichting SEBA is een referendum over het Amsterdamse erfpachtstelsel een stuk dichterbij gekomen', zegt Wagenberg. 

De regering was toen opgestapt na hevige protesten tegen de gestegen energieprijzen. Nu zijn ontevreden Bulgaren opnieuw massaal de straat opgegaan. De protesten begonnen nadat de nieuwe regering, een minderheidscoalitie van socialisten en liberalen, een omstreden mediamagnaat benoemde als hoofd van de veiligheidsdienst. Die benoeming is inmiddels teruggedraaid, maar de demonstranten zijn niet tevreden. Steeds luider eisen zij het vertrek van de coalitie. Premier Oresharski heeft herhaaldelijk gezegd dat hij niet aftreedt, maar nu ook de president pleit voor vervroegde verkiezingen, lijkt de val van het kabinet een kwestie van tijd.

Henk Krol (50Plus), Vera Bergkamp (D66), Mona Keijzer (CDA), Harry van Bommel (SP) Hoewel aan aanwezige ouders beloften waren gedaan door Nine Kooiman (SP) en Loeps Ypma (PvdA) om ons te bezoeken, blaakten deze door afwezigheid. Jammer en een teleurstelling voor de ouders die op hun rekenden. Dit werd echter ruimschoots goedgemaakt door de duidelijke interesse van de Kamerleden die wel kwamen en zoveel tijd voor ons namen. Daarom mijn speciale dank voor Vera Bergkamp, Mona Keyzer, Henk Krol en Harry Bommel. Bovendien hebben we de toezegging dat er na het reces verdere gesprekken met ons zullen zijn. ik dacht dat we hierin vooral weer duidelijk over waarheidsvinding en sancties tegen opzettelijk verkondigen van onwaarheden moeten aankaarten. Een ander erg onder belicht punt is de rol van grootouders na een uhp en ook gisteren bleek dat de Kamerleden hiervan niet goed op de hoogte zijn en dat we dit punt het verdient om extra onder de aandacht te worden gebracht. Mocht u zelf nog andere punten op de agenda willen zetten, kunt u ze hier vermelden. Wij zullen dan t.z.t een agenda opstellen en de gisteren aanwezige ouders uitnodigen voor een gesprek. voor beelden zie: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b44Z8IQ04dM    http://petities.nl/nieuws/petities-manifestatie-op-4-juli-geslaagd http://www.hyves.nl/externalRedirect/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.flickr.com%2F%2Fphotos%2F98442846%40N05%2Fsets%2F72157634489554111%2Fshow%2F

Somalia is ninth. A handful of countries before Bulgaria have gone through sustained armed conflict, famine, genocide, apartheid and a nuclear disaster. And Bulgarians? Bulgarians went through 23 years of democratic transition. The above fact hints at a key reason for the protests that have marked 2013 and are still drawing thousands of people to anti-government protests day after day: ever since the democratic changes of 1989, life in Bulgaria has been unduly hard. The protesters presently crowding the plaza surrounding the Bulgarian National Assembly and demanding the Cabinet’s resignation, belong to the generation which was in primary school circa 1989. They belong to the generation which grew up in a deprived society of clashing values and persistent uncertainty. But crucially, they also belong to the generation which, for the first time in Bulgarian modern history, could read world news, travel widely and compare. The contrast they found between their reality and the rest of European civilization was devastating. It still is today – and the protesters are tired of living in limbo. The thirty-somethings of Bulgaria had been silent till now – too busy trying to sort out their careers and families in an ever-contracting economy and an environment of growing lawlessness and nepotism. Sometimes, too busy planning emigration. This is their first mass outing, their first show of concerted citizen will – an organized discontent, growing out of several green movements which gained traction in the countrysince the mid-00s precisely because they offered a politically unaffiliated – i.e. unsullied – outlet for the frustrations Bulgarians had with a long line of resource-stripping, land-grabbing, neglectful and polluting governments. The people protesting in front of the Parliament today feel cheated out of their youth, dreams and hopes: after nearly a quarter century of “change”, nothing in their lives has actually changed for good. Their formative years were spent in conditions of deepening nihilism – between 1994 and 2012 dabbling in Bulgarian politics morphed from a challenging, ideal-bound job into a bona fide criminal career. Ministries became the front-facing “shops” of the proliferating mafia structures, manned by ousted, but well-connected Communist functionaries, and hundreds of disaffected secret police agents and prospectless young wrestlers and boxers, let down by the sudden loss of state subsidy for their local clubs (such were established in most towns in Communist times). As children and teens, the current protest generation had to endure the doomed attempts of a nascent political scene to generate elites untainted by Communist ties – a near impossibility in a society where access to power was so tightly controlled that there was virtually no other way in. Having actual political experience equaled a compromised background. To illustrate: as of this year, more than half of the currently serving Bulgarian diplomats are still persons with proven links to the oppressive apparatus of the former Communist state security services. The latest protests were triggered by the same legacy of entrenched, deeply illegitimate power: the snap elections on May 11 produced the current stillborn coalition between the Bulgarian Socialist Party (heir to the seemingly dismantled all-powerful Communist Party) and ethnic Turkish party Movement for Rights and Freedoms, with Plamen Oresharski as Prime Minister. In its first days in power, the new government, aided by a largely unchanged Parliament, attempted to shoo in Delyan Peevski (a widely reviled protégé of massive criminal monopolies, under multiple investigations himself) as head of DANS – an ill-conceived, yet highly powerful national security structure tasked with investigating organized crime activity. This paradox was seen as a monstrous gesture of contempt towards the Bulgarian people: it is one thing to tacitly advance the toxic meshing of democratic institutions and organized crime structures. It is quite another to rub it in the face of a nation that just ousted another primitive and abusive government. When today’s protesters were growing up, they witnessed the progressive deterioration of vital institutions, the arbitrary change of governments, but not of attitudes and political practices – each Cabinet appeared more absurd, incompetent and unprincipled than the last. The currency crashed, the shops had no food. The abrupt change from command economy to free market capitalism plunged vast swathes of the population into sudden, shocking poverty, accompanied by loss of dignity, status and security. Stunned, disoriented and angry, Bulgarians went to the ballot in ever dwindling numbers, mostly to avenge themselves against the latest government that overpromised and underdelivered. Elections became the public executions of politicians and parties, and, finally, of the concept of government itself. This is how beginning with 2000, Bulgarians voted in a progression of ever odder political entities – from one-man parties such as the National Movement Simeon II (which produced the paradox of installing deposed prince Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha as a republican Prime Minister without formally rescinding his royal claims) and GERB (the charismatic movement around strongman Boyko Borisov, ousted by protests in February this year), to ultranationalist scandal-mongers “Ataka”, busy inciting ethnic hatred against the significant minority of Bulgarian Turks. It continued thus until no party, no politician was able to claim an ounce of decency or respect. This mutual schism in Bulgarian public consciousness, pitting everybody who was in politics against everybody who was not, helped Bulgarian society arrive where it stands today. Party lines, for purposes other than public debates and election campaigns, are blurred beyond recognition. Trust in institutions is practically nil. Voters struggle to identify a true, meaningful alternative in terms of viable political opposition. Bulgarians either avoid voting altogether, disgusted with the mere thought of enabling the same revolving set of failed politicians, or go to the ballot not with their future in mind, but to punish, to lash out, to tear down. Everything that seemed new and untried before appeared preferable to whatever current government was in charge, so no Cabinet was actually allowed space and time to see though meaningful reforms. In turn, each successive Cabinet busied itself predominantly with undoing what the previous ones had done and reallocating resources to insiders – a party mandate didn’t mean governing a country, but simply draining it for personal gain and exploiting it as a vast sweatshop. To quote a recent Reuters publication: “We’re effectively dealing with a Wild West country,” said an EU official who handles east Europe, voicing doubts about Bulgaria’s ability to enforce the law and live by democratic norms”. This stinging judgment echoes ominously for the future of Bulgarian statehood – it indicates that the country has exhausted its credit of post-Cold War good will in the eyes of its aspirational model – Western Europe. While in the 90s the West may have been willing to help Bulgaria along, now the country is viewed more as a grand nuisance, a baffling liability in the periphery of the European Union. The demonstrators standing vigil in the cold nights of November 1989, shouting “Times are changing! It’s our time!” felt the world was watching. The free world was behind them, the Iron Curtain was melting, help was on its way. It was an illusion, ultimately, but it sustained them. Today, the children of those same protesters doggedly demand the resignation of another morally bankrupt government – the last, ugly spawn of a transition whose course was fatally perverted from the very start. They stand in the sweltering July evenings on the same yellow-bricked plaza, in front of the same Parliament building. They know now times have not changed. They know they stand alone. Maria Spirova Maria Spirova is an award-winning Bulgarian journalist with over 10 years of agency and long-form experience.   Copyright © 2013 euronews

That was a reaction to the president’s call for early elections, which he made clear in an address to the nation earlier on Friday. Earlier in the day Bulgaria’s president called for new early elections, claiming this is the only way out of the ongoing political crisis and mass protests. “Early parliamentary elections are the only democratic solution to the crisis we are in. To tell people that new early elections are a dangerous scenario is to tell them that democracy is dangerous,” Rosen Plevneliev said in his address to the nation in connection with the tense situation in the country. “Bulgarians are protesting peacefully, which is a clear sign our society is mature…. What is most worrying is that there were attempts to artificially provoke ethnic conflicts. This means playing with fire and the consequences could be disastrous. Haven’t we learned anything from our neighbors? I firmly condemn those provocations!”The series of anti-government protests in Bulgaria was triggered by the scandalous appointment of controversial media mogul Delyan Peevski as Chair of the State Agency for National Security (DANS).Although the appointment was revoked, the people went on to demand that the cabinet resign collectively over ties with oligarchs.Protesters are also calling for Election Code amendments which will guarantee greater representation of the people in Parliament.Plevneliev has backed the protests earlier, but two days ago he said the solution for the crisis was not a "revolution, but right steps in the right direction."According to him, the political instability has a negative influence on entrepreneurs and investments. He stressed the crisis in the country is not an economic one as the macroeconomic indicators are stable, due to the strict fiscal policy and the established fundamental "culture of stability on the backdrop of the currency board."The President believes the political parties need counter-pressure, but with concrete and well-postulated demands.Bulgaria’s embattled Socialist-backed government however has repeatedly denied rampant speculations that it is considering resignation amid mass protests.“The issue is not on our agenda at all. We have never discussed it," Defense Minister Anguel Naydenov told bTV on Sunday morning.“We have strong support from people in the whole country. So there is no cause to be disturbed by the fact that several thousand protesters are demanding our resignation. We have no intention to resign now or in May. We have lots to offer in terms of social and other measures,” Naydenov pointed out.The statement came days after Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski made it clear he will not resign as long as the government has the support of Bulgaria’s parliament.He denied hinting at quitting his post when the opposition boycotted the parliamentary sitting and it was cancelled.“This is your own interpretation of my words,” he told reporters.This is the second time that the embattled prime minister defies calls to resign.Earlier in the month he warned that the renewed political crisis might jeopardise Bulgaria's negotiations for EU aid between 2014 and 2020 and cost the newcomer billions of euros in lost subsidies.“Quitting now would also mean a deepening of the economic and social crisis,” he said.The prospect of new early elections loomed large in Bulgaria on Wednesday after the Socialist Party also said it is bracing up for snap polls amid fears the opposition will continue to hamper the work of parliament.The Socialists feared that the leader of the nationalists party Ataka Volen Siderov and his MPs will continue to boycott the parliament and the plenary sitting will have to be cancelled.Members of the center-right party Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, GERB, are also boycotting the parliamentary sittings, saying they will attend only if changes to the Election Code are on the agenda.Meanwhile Bulgaria's former Interior Minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov stated that early general elections in September would be the best scenario for the country.