Benjamin Ribout, Regard, 20 January 2024
Vladimir Mitev is a Bulgarian journalist based in Ruse, where he was born. A Romanian speaker, he works for both Bulgarian public radio and Romanian public radio. He also puts his knowledge of relations between the two countries at the service of his blog, The Bridge of Friendship, in reference to the bridge linking Ruse to Giurgiu. Both towns are on the Danube and are 15 minutes apart by car.
The interview was carried out on Monday January 8 at the end of the day in Ruse (Bulgaria), in Romanian. The title and the subtitle were written by the Bridge of Friendship. Regard is a French-Romanian media, whose site can be consulted here.
Residents of Ruse participated last year in demonstrations taking place in Giurgiu against an incinerator project on the Romanian side. Did this momentum surprise you?
No. There is a real trauma specific to the town of Ruse linked precisely to the town of Giurgiu. All this dates back to the 1980s, to the time of the old Verachim chemical combine which produced chlorine in Giurgiu. At the time, many people in Ruse had respiratory problems, and many left the city because of it. This trauma is still alive, and when people here heard about this new toxic waste incinerator project – medical and animal waste, editor’s note – it immediately put them on alert. Especially since it is exactly the same place where the Verachim factory was located, liquidated in 2003. The wound is therefore not healed. The demonstrations, which took place on both sides of the Danube, revealed real solidarity, or at least a common interest. While the Bulgarian press brought up the fact that “Romania [was] going to poison us again”, the inhabitants of Ruse realized that the Romanians reasoned like them. This brought people together, even more so when it was established that the company wanting to develop the project had more than questionable ethics.
More generally, would you say that the two communities maintain close relations on both sides of the river and the border?
I would say that at the local level, citizens are not always as well connected as administrations. Cooperation exists mainly thanks to the EU in the form of the “Danubius Euroregion” organization which contributes to the development of bilateral relations between the two local administrations. There should be more connections between people. It is only when there are problems that solidarity manifests itself… This being said, there are fairly frequent exchanges between local agricultural producers. Furthermore, projects exist, particularly at the cultural level; the museums of the two cities collaborate, for example. And two years ago, the Cu Fată Spre Dunăre (Facing the Danube, editor’s note) project consisted of a series of cultural activities focused on the urban regeneration of the historic district of Smârda, in Giurgiu. I would also mention that last year, still on the Romanian side, there was a local edition of the Animest film festival. The event’s communication was also aimed at fans of the animation genre living in Ruse. A great idea, even if in the end, very few Bulgarians went to the festival. In summary, there are signs that things are moving in the right direction, but it’s still a little tentative. There is always a cultural border, particularly linked to language, which creates distance and prejudice. But I’m talking to you about the relationship between Ruse and Giurgiu. Of course, on another scale, Romanian-Bulgarian ties are rather rich, whether at the economic level, between NGOs, etc.
How do you work to bring the two cities together through your blog?
Most people here think in terms of national central power; there is Bucharest on one side, and Sofia on the other. Through my blog, I try to promote a dynamic identity in order to think together. It is in Bulgarian, Romanian, English, and sometimes other languages as well. When I launched it, in 2015, my idea was to inform the two countries about what was being done in their neighbors. For example, during the 2020 protests in Bulgaria against corruption and oligarchy, I tried to explain to Romanians what was happening here. The blog gained credibility and opened the doors to Romanian and Bulgarian public radio for me. As for the name, The Bridge of Friendship, I also thought of it to celebrate a symbol. In the 1950s, this bridge between Ruse and Giurgiu was the first built between the two countries. Today, some are talking about the possibility of making it a crossing point also for pedestrians and bicycles. That would be wonderful.
Photo: The Friendship Bridge at Ruse-Giurgiu (source: Yavor Michev)
Subscribe to the channel of the blog “The Bridge of Friendship” in YouTube, where a number of video and audio interviews are published! The blog can also be followed in Facebook and Twitter. Its Telegram channel is here. And here is its Substack account.
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