An overview of the visions of young Bulgarians for the future development of the country was presented to the Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, Vice Prime Minister Tomislav Donchev, Vice Prime Minister for Economic and Demographic Policy Mariyana Nikolova, Ministers of Youth and Sport, Science and Education and Labour and Social Policy.
The brief report offers different perspectives that came by the Young Round Table, recently organized by Gallup International and Ivan Hijiki Institute.
Complete records of the event could be seen HERE – part one, part two, part three, part four.
The discussion was dedicated to the thirtieth anniversary of the democratic changes in Bulgaria. Gallup International gave the word to young researchers and visionaries to offer their ideas and proposals for the future development of the country.
The first panel was dedicated to inspiring examples and know how. Some of the highlighs were the importance of the youth empowering, youth work and above all, the need of hearing out the voice of young people in Bulgaria in the process of policy making. Furthermore, some good examples of socially oriented entrepreneurship among the new generation in Bulgaria were outlined. The necessity of more solidarity and equal development of all regions of the country were also among the emphasized topics in the discussion.
Inequalities of start opportunities were addressed again in the second panel, which was rather ideological and brought together young analysts and experts in various areas – from Orthodoxy, through conservatism and liberalism to anarchism.
The third panel gave the floor to young researchers and the two core narratives appeared again: the rather right view of personal initiative, responsibility, good example and enterprise, and the rather left – related to solidarity, overcoming severe inequalities, etc.
Young political scientists took part in the final panel. The public was included in vivacious debate and actively took part in the conversation with the students in Political science. Each of the participants tried to synthesize in a single word what Bulgaria needs the most in the years to come. Solidarity, participation, awareness, hope, forgiveness, values were among the most frequent mentions.