My guest this week from sofia is the need for such a minister of labor and social policy why does she continue to serve in a government thats mistreating its most Vulnerable People in violation of its human rights of the geisha and why has it done so little to crack down on organized crime and the politicians who benefit from. It its a start of a welcome to the conflict zone weve seen more than 2 months of government protests sometimes violent when is the government going to get the message and resign were getting a lot of different messages from the protests but were also getting messages from those that are not on the belt. Actually the protests started 2 months ago but they combine that if different messages some of the messages those messages that are for better judicial system or more justice and for fight against corruption is the messages that we hear and we do want to look for still in our politics whether from the opinion polls this is pretty clear 70 percent to distrust the government and the personal confidence rating of the Prime Minister has dropped to just 20 percent the lowest rate in years so the crowds are telling you they dont want you they dont want your new draft constitution they want immediate elections so why not give them to the crowd because there are not more than a 6000 people on the street and there are more than 1000000 people who have voted for this government and also the regular elections that just showed you what 6 months from today people dont want to wait for that theyve seen enough corruption theyve seen enough brutality on the streets now the violence has been condemned as widely excessive violence by the Police Including by your own president truman rather have he accused your government of actually directing and triggering the violence didnt he at least on one occasion. I wouldnt agree with your strong words about violence because i can i can tell you that there are more than 80 people eastment that are actually now we must be though and that kept the against them theres been a lot of violence on behalf of the public and what when we are talking about the role of the president its really very interesting that actually its the president that is the one that must be a king about unity and must be opening alak and that on the contrary is actually fueling the violence and hes giving spirit of hatred thats thats quite an accusation to level against your president but its not shared by the council of europe in particular the. Commissioner for human rights dona me out of it she talked about numerous reports of Police Violence against journalists covering the demonstrations several were reportedly beaten up and pepper sprayed when right Police Clashed with demonstrators violence against germany she said especially at the hands of state agents is contrary to states duty to Uphold Press Freedom and to protect the safety of journalists its pretty sad when you have to be reminded of that isnt that its pretty set but at the same moment you are a person that is your word for Factual Television and for factual journalism and i can tell you the fact im not actually supporting the strong statements as i told you all right now there were more than 80 Police People that are in hospital and in out of that hes Serious Violence there also yellow also on the street from the brought the sounds there were coffins that were being dealt and a number of other. Access to it is that they have been we have been witnessing on the streets so the council of europe doesnt know what hes talking about and your own president doesnt know what hes talking about and you have a veto of the euro zone when i try minister so this is led into his own doesnt it you have a dead end here. Its not that then but objectivity insists that we also see everything which is on the street not only what is what suits elk recission well president rather has long accused your Prime Minister of corruption and links with organized crime hes called on him to resign the government government the current government he says is morally finished and its of the utmost importance that its formally finished as well hes right isnt it what kind of system is this where the Prime Minister is pictured asleep in his official residence a gun beside his bed and a draw in his bedside table stuffed full of 500 euro notes what kind of government is this what are your proofs that this this photograph that actually took what are the proofs of the president in this respect and is this what is to the reality of war just broadcast in picture is where the Prime Minister is not on one and the same picture with the staff and it notes a funeral and at the same time i think that if we if were talking about democracy and if were talking about superiority of law its the court that must actually say whether its true or not but were coming to the courts in a minute but how helpful is it to the stability of bulgaria with the Prime Minister and the president at each others throat both of them calling for the other one to resign the answer has to be thats not very good for the stability of your country is it. Definitely this war between the institutions is not good for the stability but i want to again to to draw your attention to the facts and the facts are very clear 1st of all we have the country at the moment which has very low big reserve the g. D. P. Due to the corporate crisis its 8. 2 in comparison with other countries when its at double figures we also have we have the in top 5 the numbers of unemployment and i can also point to that the race of the g. D. P. In the last 5 years is nearly double this is not possible in a country which is there with under any corruption its not possible to receive such figures if everything is so rooted them corrupt it is there you are trying now the conversation well im not the only one saying that because you know both pug area and the government you serve in have become by words for corruption internationally corruption mafia capture democratic backsliding and a political manipulated an almost dysfunctional Justice System i wonder why you continue to serve in a government which is so mired in scandal. It got this is the government which doubled the teacher selling in the country this is the government which invested 2500000000. 00 in only in the Education System this is the government which preserved almost 300000 jobless in the core if that is this is the government which double the g. D. P. In the last in the last years and also is the government that bostons increases the incomes of the people and i dont know like a mismatch of the black and white you know your figures are extraordinary g. D. P. Growth over the last 10 years has been around 50 percent in contrast to remain which joined on the same those you the European Union has registered an increase of more than 200 percent can you explain that you have the lowest average salary in the you with less than 690. 00 euros a month less than bosnia montenegro which arent even in the e. U. And the European Council on Foreign Relations says its a sign youve made very poor use of the cohesion funds why is that mismanagement and corruption or is a both. This is this is not true because the ligaments that were in the country when we started in the got in the country was 2505011 now list expanded and then 11 and when we are talking about the influence of the e. U. France actually the increase of the sale is just that the investment of the events is 8. 2 percent for the period between 24020. 00 points if it is also important that the g. D. P. Has increased with 7. 7 percent the European Finance investment it is once again because i am a minister of lebanon social policy want to measure the level of unemployment which would mean the whole thing or end now is 7. 2 percent and youth of the European Union france investment it is a lower i phone 6 percent minister last year the Us State Department said that while you laws provided penalties for corrupt officials the government did not implement that law effectively officials in all branches of government reportedly gauged in corrupt practices with impunity that means no consequences so the inescapable conclusion is that you allow this corruption because members of your government and criminals connected to it profiting by it day by day thats why the state department underlined multiple reports of government corruption and they included bribery conflict of interest elaborate embezzlement schemes procurement violations and influence trading this is full Service Corruption right across the spectrum of your government did you think the world would notice what was going on. I can tell you that in the last year is the commission for fighting against corruption and confiscating of illegal aquatic property yes that dam the but it really mean the precautions for all out of a 1000000000 lever and yes that means that more than 1000 different the checks and revisions of different officials on Different Levels including local and National Government theyre what im going to Government Official not a single senior Government Official or major crime bosses been indicted on corruption charges wise than that court cases and then not finished yet but i can also point to that part of the felt this and i mean once again reminding but of the protests after im beat by a person who is now trying to escape justice from bulgaria because of not bathe. In the country for more than 700000000 you know you keep telling me about what youve done on the subject of corruption but last year the center for the study of democracy in your own capital and sophia so the least 35 percent of public procurement contracts involve corrupt practices thats 35 percent more than a 3rd this is the kind of country that youve turned bug area into and you still think you should stay on in Government Transparency international regs your country as the most corrupt in the European Union and has done for the last 7 years consecutively why dont we call it then you dont need that in this respect then the statistic which they have that they have announced that for example 58 percent of the respondents in the area say that in the everyday life they give them met that option and that actually according to europe or with that our country yes with 3 percent lower corruption rate then in comparison to 2017 well i dont know which your a barometer youre looking at but the one last year said that 80 percent according to it 80 percent. I think that there is widespread corruption 78 percent think that the only way to succeed in business is to have political connections these are statistics that would shame any developing nation around the world let alone a member of the European Union exactly the same you dont permit the sense that 28 percent of the respondents say that they are actually seeing that action in the every day and 58 percent say that they have not been enough touch with that action in their lap and it well i dont know if there is you using i wonder if you actually listen to the views of the people out on the streets or are you just interested in digging around in your heels and hanging on to your government salaries to listen to what actually people are saying on the streets about you yes we do not and as i dont know on the street there is no one united view and that is no one united group of people and indeed nation may be a constant of them plenty but even at that different people with different motives their dulls the young people the people that are actually looking for better judicial system and that one more vigorous fight that absent those voices we hear and we want to respond to them you have to join us according to the u. S. State department youre not doing anything about it youre providing opportunities for full scale full spectrum corruption within the government itself i want them to agree with that and i dont know that theyre talking about either way that some of the what theyre talking about the rest of the what hes talking about the e. U. Doesnt know what hes talking about nobody seems to understand you very well do they let very honest of that country. Last again and im telling you that in a country where the incomes that being increased where the employment rate is lower and let the g. D. P. Is being increased you cannot eat about the pandemic corruption because this is just cannot be achieved if there is such import thats enormous and then a corruption so you say minister why is so theres so little respect in your government for the free press which is after all the bedrock of any Democratic State the council of Europe Commission dunja many out of age noted last year the continual deterioration of Media Freedom in bulgaria she cited nontransparent media ownership heris mint of journalists including the use of defamation suits against them why do you allow this to go on more than 60 percent of the Media Coverage in the area is critical against the government they wouldnt say that this is this is like a freedom of press Freedom House reported when a progovernment journalist and politician and milk look of was appointed last year to head by a national t. V. All the critical voices were silenced same with the Nova Broadcasting Group new owners came in investigative journalists were fired you clearly have no interest in a press that holds your politicians to account to you. I wouldnt agree with this as well because in one of the most popular shows on the get a National Television distracted for example was one of the main leaders of the opposition and one of the main leaders of the protests and actually every single day that a protester on the hook at a National Television and people can free to express what they think about the government and what they think about the media you know get it yes but dont investigate them dont hold them to account for corruption earlier this year Reporters Without Borders accused your government of trying to intimidate journalists it said theyve been subjected to a series of verbal attacks and threats by very senior officials since the beginning of february they talked about the prosecutor general the speaker of the National Assembly why this constant intimidation is your government afraid of the truth do you do you see me being afraid of the truth we do understand that there are a lot of problems and that we need to do a lot in the fight about that option and they sound very little about it and have done very little about it in the time that this party has been in power very little 1003 divisions 1000 provisions the 1st senior Government Officials you say that this is a little and how many say to the sis and how many centers are many people have been sentenced nobody you think that in the final legit cry and also no major Government Official has been said they think that in the fight in the fight against corruption we dont receive. Such warrants that we see now at the moment given the fight against corruption is not only something that in this is the rating of the government lest you you belittle and insult journalists during a press conference in sofia on february 4th your Prime Minister likened reporters especially female reporters to turkeys and then he grotesquely tried to mock them by making sounds imitating the way turkeys gobble is that how you respect the free press in your country. Our Prime Minister just isnt specific simply language and he didnt meant still be able to any of the journalists any disrespect i dont think that this is a serious accusation about that about lack of freedom of press well this year your country is ranked 100 and 11th in the World Press Freedom in thats the lowest ranking of any you member country and way lower than countries like kenya and angola youre not ashamed that you score so low on these key indicators for democracy like free press and very much a story for the fact that the getting continues to be with the negative coverage you know of the foreign media but i do believe that if we really object if we are going to see that light again as i mentioned to you before is not so black and white 60 percent of the average in bulgaria is negative about the government every journalist yet is free supposed to talk about the government banned the use of social media in the countries really enormous including the us consumption of internet media and internet media is very very critical about the minister whats of particular concern is your human rights record in bulgaria and the impression that fundamentally go safeguards for citizens appeared to be missing at the end of 27000. 00 the un committee against torture reported that the or thirtys often failed to inform arrested people of their rights in criminal proceedings that actively discouraged by manipulation threats and ill treatment from accessing those rights once more in excess of 70 percent of detainees dont have access to a lawyer when those criminal trials begin and some dont even have a lawyer at any stage in those criminal proceedings to say any of that strike you as fair and what kind of state he running where you permit things like that to go on. Ministry of justice in the yeti and also the other institutions that are supposed to be taught what about these problems theyre working very hard on this as a minister of labor theres an easter social policy i am in charge for people with disabilities people with mental can be kept and also elderly people and for example in the public 1000. 00 crisis. But yet it has managed to preserve the life of most of the of the people who have been now at the moment did not take us interest in centers or people with disability with people with dementia out of 60000 people who get in these and theres only for example and 54 where you are not on her own a thought my question was about the lack of legal representation for people in your Justice System its a pretty shocking that court 70 percent of detainees dont have access to a lawyer when those criminal trials begin i dont know about this figure us but i can tell this if they dont you read the record here International Report size your case you want to exaggerate it this bigger because that ill ever get a lot of lawyers in the area that also is. This case is the committee against torture said the one in every 3 people detained in a police stations is subjected to abuse there which may be they say of such severity as to a month to torture a main clue beating handcuffing 2 immovable objects and the use of truncheons i thought all this stuff was supposed to end when the communists left it doesnt seem to have ended at all you seem to perpetuate this kind of treatment and im wondering war as i still think this is that it was actually exaggerated and its not exactly true you can also see that during certainly nowhere is lying about you now the un doesnt know what theyre talking about Human Rights Council committee against torture they dont know what theyre talking about they dont talk to people they dont do research they simply make all this up to them and you do not believe that the geopolitical interests sometimes when we are talking about the very end and International Image about the area below one has no interest in making up stories about you. Full stop im no interest whatsoever im sorry but you can always draw facts from certain cases and you can always say that this is the system that the system is not like this and i can tell you this as a Person Police already thought the 7 years in the yet you have ample that means 16 years old when the plumbing is spelled and i can tell you that that is tremendous improvement from 1998 until today well since youre in charge of social care and people with mental disabilities let me join your attention to another report which came from the un committee against torture which is particularly shocking because it involves the excessive use of medication and chemical restraints on people on inmates and the forcible administering of intrusive and irreversible psychiatric treatment and therapies such as neuroleptic drugs without any attempt to gain consent from the people who are subjected to these treatment this is going on in your Mental Institution and frankly its inhuman isnt it how do you permit that this report is particularly with this report that i am aware of it or its about it doesnt free particular institutions this institutions will be closed and all the people in these institutions will be displaced until then yes then there is the close when will they be closed they will last until the end of this month we are working already on that and together with the philosophy of the general with that is that edition of all the institutions the mentalities of the temple people in if we see that either its just like this all the other institutions will be well how about how you know because there is no independent monitoring another fact brought up by the committee against torture you have no independent special monitoring mechanism for Mental Health institutions we are working very closely with the nongovernmental organizations and from the 1st of september we have established the mages young quality of social services i was left to point out the duty. The europeans only that it is due to our politics and the moment you get yet there are no institutions for children with mental disabilities and we are just at in the process of institutionalization where all the people with mental disability as well minister is pretty shocking youve been in the for 10 years and you still have these institutions which administer forcible forcibly administer intrusive and irreversible psychiatric treatment and therapies such as neuroleptic drugs another trick which the communist authorities used to do on people on dissidents and people who didnt agree with them this is been going on for 10 years and you tell me your only now getting round to doing something about it why why have you let this happen for so long the last 3 terms of you this Prime Minister and this party in power and nothing was done about it last night its what in the midst of level of social policy was 25 years ago then we get more than 50000 children in institutions now we have no more than a 2500 children that are being im not talking about children im talking about every has and then look how long it took us to the process of the institution i was asian and to say today that we dont have any more institutions for children now is that the process for elderly people and for people with mental disabilities and i am confident that in between 5 to 7 years we are going to and this is between 5 and 7 years at the time of your countrys accession you promise to respect and govern according to the values of the European Union those included Human DignityFreedom Democracy equality rule of law respect for human rights things that still do not pertain and are still not respected in your various institutions like prisons where people are being mistreated and like these Mental Institutions where youve acknowledged that the mistreatment is still continuing i wouldnt agree with you that they dont respect these the years because i dont i dont see that this is a problem of the whole system yes thats the case in which we dont see these values respected and in this case this we act immediately and severely. All right they need to thank you very much for being with us. Thanks. No armstrong really walk on the moon. Isnt the earth really flat have to are all of. Those the government is just plain stupid reason to assume. Conspiracy theories spread like wildfire on the internet in a simple conspiracy theories can provide comfort you dont like reality create another. Democracy of the gullible. The 15 minute long t. W. That is the spirit the time is ago when germany was reunified in october 1009000 of the time economic disparity between east and west was huge. Today how have things changed for people in the 2 moms of the country ill have companies. Made in germany. 90 minutes on w. Closely. Carefully. The soon to miss to the good. Old fashioned. Discover. Subscribe to documentary on you tube. This is some dope story about a stubborn rice farmer from thailand. His problem tests. His credo. No chemical. Step. To. Strike. The students on the. Training successful. Starts october 1st 2. News line from the 1st u. S. President ial debate sets a divisive time joe biden calls donald trump a national embarrassment. Theres no plan though i didnt express a single plan he had about how were going to move forward. And it made me realize that i just cant