What Will the Anti-Soros Parliamentary Committee Investigate?

Following the tabling of a proposal by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (MRF) – New Beginning, the National Assembly established an ad-hoc committee to establish facts and circumstances regarding the activities of George Soros and Alexander Soros and their foundations in Bulgaria, funding Bulgarian natural and legal persons, as well as non-governmental organisatoins, and their possible links to political parties, magistrates, educational institutions, media outlets, businesses and public institutions.

The committee’s long name fails to provide a clear indication of the specific supposedly criminal actions of George and Alexander Soros under review.  In which of the emblematic scandals that have rocked Bulgarian society in the past 15 years have they been involved?

• Will the committee investigate whether George and Alexander Soros brought about the bankruptcy of the Corporate Commercial Bank (KTB)?
• Will it investigate whether George and Alexander Soros shared an office with Petyo Petrov “The Euro”, and whether they compromised the investigation into KTB’s bankruptcy?
• Will it look into whether George and Alexander Soros bribed numerous media outlets with questionable ethics and exchanged media influence for political favours?
• Will it investigate if the father and son appointed Ivan Geshev as Prosecutor General?
• If they conspired to replace Ivan Geshev upon deciding he was no longer serving them?
• Will the committee answer whether George and Alexander Soros are the people preventing Borislav Sarafov from vacating the post of Prosecutor General, months after he is no longer mandated to exercise such powers?
• Will it check if George and Alexander Soros were the ones to create a secret room in the Eight Dwarfs restaurant, where, for years, the decisions to be issued by prosecutors and judges were being made?
• Will it clarify whether George and Alexander Soros took the assets of Yavor and Ilia Zlatanov and whether it was they who pushed a cart containing 35 kilogrammes of gold, at night, at the parking lot of the Specialised Prosecutor’s Office?
• Will it clarify if George and Alexander Soros photographed Borislav Sarafov and Alexander Soros in front of the Eight Dwarfs restaurant?
• Whether they influenced the election of the Bulgarian European Prosecutor?
• Was it George and Alexander Soros who, for years, sent police patrols to serve as private security in front of The Eight Dwarfs restaurant?
• Did George and Alexander Soros withdraw BGN 54 mln. in cash from the office of International Asset Bank? Did they put the money in sacks, loading them onto their company vehicle? Were they the people who transported this cash to the warehouse of Vodno Stroitelstvo near the town of Blagoevgrad?
• Did George and Alexander Soros tamper with prosecutor Zanev’s investigation into the criminal scheme to divert BGN 54 mln. from public funds allocated for the construction of Hemus Highway?
• Did George and Alexander Soros create the largest energy cartel in Bulgaria, keeping the prices of electricity and heating services high for years?
• Was it George and Alexander Soros who managed to divert the attention of the National Revenue Agency, the Ministry of Energy, the Ministry of Environment and Water and the Energy and Water Regulatory Commission from said cartel?
• Did George and Alexander Soros author the criminal schemes that derailed the effort to increase the capacity of the Chiren Natural Gas Storage, thus jeopardising energy security in Bulgaria and the EU?
• Was it George and Alexander Soros who hired strongmen, threatened voters and manipulated the electoral process in the town of Pazardzhik?

Surely, the newly created parliamentary committee will not investigate any of these scandals. The implicated individuals are well known, and neither George nor Alexander Soros is among them.

The state’s captured institutions, however, are doing their utmost not to notice these scandals. Instead, they remain focused on attacking and pressuring persons considered to be opponents of Delyan Peevski.

Arrests of opponents, proceedings against certain mayors, attacks against judges and prosecutors, and pressure exerted on independent businesses – these are not isolated cases, but part of a worrying trend involving the capture of the state.

In the past few days, the series of attacks has been joined by increased pressure on civic society organisations.

All pretence of trying to establish facts and the truth has been fully discarded.

The newly created Soros committee’s scope of work is defined vaguely on purpose. The intention is to apply illegitimate pressure and spin negative public campaigns against civic organisations.

The influence of the New Beginning is gradually undermining all public institutions, eroding them to mere instruments for exerting illegitimate pressure.

Today, the target is on civic organisations. Tomorrow, the same mechanisms may be used against journalists, educators, and citizens.

Staying silent on such occasions does not communicate neutrality but complicity.

If we allow fear to determine our society’s discourse, tomorrow, there may be no one left to defend our freedom.

As a member of the Council for Civil Society Development, ACF supports the council’s opinion, which was tabled at the National Assembly, and calls for the closure of the ad-hoc parliamentary committee.