Политика

At the last session of the Municipal Council, Mrs. Ekaterina Kaferinova said that she was affected by a comment in the newspaper "Tempo", which said that there was no debate in the local parliament and the councillors only voted on decisions made in advance. According to her, the large preliminary work in the committees is not taken into account, where each point is discussed in detail and thanks to this during the sessions work is done in business. As an example, it was pointed out that a day before the last session 4 committees had been working in joint session for 3 and a half hours.

First some bills. There were 41 items on the agenda plus 12 extra. Roughly calculated, during the 3 and a half hour meeting of the Committees per point fall 4 or a maximum of 5 minutes. During the session itself, which lasted less than 2 hours, a point fell between 2 and 3 minutes. There was an attempt at discussion on one single point. One big plus of this style of work is that it is acted in business, operationally, without turning the Municipal Council into a chateau, from which mostly party dividends are usually drawn. One big minus is that the highest body of local government - the Municipal Council, loses its authority as a field for expressing and asserting an opinion and position - and that of different opinions and positions, as is accepted in every democratic institution. Instead of a clash of ideas, there is a clash of lobbies, and the victory comes not because someone offers a better solution, but because someone has managed to secure more votes. The biggest harm of this is that it digs the gap between the government and the people. Instead of getting angry at the media, let the councillors more often turn their eyes to the back rows in the great hall of the municipality - where their constituents should be sitting. These lines are empty - at the last session again there was not a single citizen in the hall, only employees. Who is responsible for this civic apathy and disinterest of the citizens of Velingrad from the problems of Velingrad? Why is the topic of majority voting in search of personalities so relevant today? In the Municipal Council we have elected 29 people and they are different in political affiliation, as a way of thinking and acting. Some of them are rightly angry that people put them under a common denominator and put them in charge of all decisions, despite their negative vote. And this is not the fault of the people or the media. Because the support or denial for a decision is not given only by a vote for or against. There is no truth that was born in a vote, in a procedure, or in a rule book. Truth is born more difficult, more responsible - in open argument, debate, clash of opinions. This is the real spirit of democracy and parliamentarism, which is noticeably lacking in the Municipal Council - Velingrad. Elena Baeva