Keep a civil tongue in your head, Bulgarian President tells MPs
Bulgarian head of state President Rossen Plevneliev has appealed to the country’s politicians to stop what he called the daily use of hate speech in Parliament.
Speaking on June 10 at a Bulgarian-French conference on prevention of violence in daily life, Plevneliev said that in Bulgaria, aggression on the road, elder abuse, aggression in school and situations in which parents attacked teachers are only some of the problems that the state has to tackle.
He added that in 2015, 1403 complaints of child abuse were investigated.
Plevneliev went on to rebuke MPs for the way that they speak in the National Assembly.
“I appeal to the honourable MPs once and for all give up the hate speech that happens daily in the National Assembly. This is not normal and this needs to change,” he said.
Plevneliev called for a change of attitudes in society to unite and the building of zero tolerance for violence.
The President said that violence was a crude and unacceptable encroachment on the rights and dignity of the person and noted that this phenomenon was becoming more prevalent in Bulgarian society, saying that every day various manifestations of violence were seen.
He condemned the violence in Bulgarian schools, where there is aggression between children, parents and teachers.
There were numerous registered cases of violence against the elderly, he said.
There was daily violence on the roads, and this could not but be a cause for concern, Plevneliev said.
He reminded of the risks associated with the development of technology that allows for anonymity in social networks and highlighted the danger of forms of violence in cyberspace.
Plevneliev, a 52-year-old qualified engineer who was recruited from the private sector to Boiko Borissov’s first cabinet in 2009, was elected head of state in 2011 on the ticket of Borissov’s party. Plevneliev has announced that in the autumn elections, he does not intend standing for a second term as President.
