“The first act for the year I am going to undertake will be to refer to the Constitutional Court the brutal and, in many respects, incompetent infringement of the Bulgarian Constitution,” said President Rumen Radev after the water blessing ceremony of the Bulgarian army flags in Sofia. His motives will be made clear on Monday and will be “rather bulky”.

According to the president, we are beginning the new year with mixed feelings and half-baked decisions – a half-baked constitution, half-Schengen, half-truth, half-baked budget, half-baked reforms. “When political dissipation and trading in national sovereignty start to be regarded as a norm, the cost is national dignity and our transformation into second-rate European citizens,” he said.

Rumen Radev said further that 2024 will be a year of choices, and not just the election for European Parliament, it will be a year of choosing between war and peace, between national self-denigration and our worthy European future, between resignation and action.