The shock from the Paris assaults is now starting to  recede on the third day after the blasts, and life gradually gets back to normal, showing the strength of the society. However, this wouldn’t erase the deep mark of the tragedy, nor the escalated anger and disgust, caused by another case of the heaviest illness in this world now – terrorism. The reactions in Bulgaria show lots of empathy, not only to the grief for the victims, but also to the determination for coping with the great evil. The Bulgarians laid lots of flowers and lit candles in front of the French embassy downtown Sofia and the empathy with France was expressed by the illuminating of the National Palace of Culture in the colors of the French flag. Many people placed the blue, white and red color on their Facebook profile photos as an expression of personal support.

The high sensitiveness of the average Bulgarian towards terrorism is due not only to its systematically repeating manifestations, but also because of the fact that there are sometimes Bulgarians among the victims. There is one Bulgarian citizen among those killed in Paris now, while one Bulgarian got killed in a bomb assault back in 2012, when a bus with Israeli tourists was blasted at the port town of Burgas. The 2004 series of blasts in Madrid took another 4 Bulgarian lives.

Despite the official claims on the lack of any direct terrorist threat in Bulgaria, the authorities took care of tight prevention measures. The government didn’t fall victim to the temptation to close the borders, but enhanced external border control, introducing 100-percent ID checks along those national borders that are external for the EU. The measure caused the slowing of the traffic across the checkpoints with Turkey, Macedonia, Serbia and at Sofia Airport as well.

At the same time all potentially endangered sites saw increased awareness level and the police presence was enhanced across the country and specialized police raids against the illegal migration took place in several districts with 130 illegal immigrants nabbed.

Despite the inconvenience of these urgent measures the society sees them as something positive, with the understanding that those are necessary and some even say we need more. At the same time the society is concerned about this compulsive feeling that terrorism doesn’t see enough counteraction. We are asking the question whether the state is ready to cope with the various forms of this phenomenon, expecting more systematic and respecting anti-terrorist actions. For instance, stricter control of the migration flows, a significant part of which goes through Bulgaria. These groups of migrants have been endangering the whole of Europe lately by generating economic, social and political problems. Another option is the legislative incrimination of radical Islam in Bulgaria. Then why not form a global coalition of rivals, like Russia and the USA, instead of partial coalitions against the ISIS, which obviously recognizes no borders. Thus each international forum on the issue will be subject to raised cautiousness. The urgency meeting of the EU interior ministers, convened this week on the demand of France is the first event of that kind coming.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev