PRESENTATION OF BUDD

The Citizen’s Political Organization - Bulgarian Union for Direct Democracy (BUDD) was registered under the Law on Political Parties in the Republic of Bulgaria in 2016 by the Sofia City Court and confirmed by the same court in 2018. The initiative for its establishment started in 2014 by a group of Progressive Bulgarian citizens, supporters of Direct Democracy, who never took part in power. Then, an association for popularizing the policies of Bulgarian Direct Democracy, a new Energy Economy, and unconditional Basic Income was established, which is now an Institute for Bulgarian Direct Democracy - an analytical center of BUDD. During the initial activity, it was found that these public engagements affect a huge circle of people in a difficult social situation, falling into the hopeless trap of poverty, extreme inequality, the lack of prospects for development, and the realization of several generations in the Bulgarian families. This conclusion becomes the basis for deciding on the registration of a political party to meet the legal requirements and to become a real instrument for sustainable systemic social change by ending the severe demographic catastrophe in the country. The main pillars of BUDD subsequently became direct democracy, an energy economy, and unconditional basic income.

The analysis of the political situation in the European Union and the global development of social relations show that the original, naturally embraced ideas correspond to the new wave of reformist movements, citizen’s organizations, and political parties to change the system with representatives and open the way to citizen’s participation through Citizen's Initiatives - a systematic approach, deliberately ignored and impeded by the European Commission, respectively underestimated or manipulated by the elites at the national and local level. In 2015, a natural contact with Europe for Freedom and Direct Democracy group in the European Parliament was carried out and an exchange of ideas with the current largest political organization in Italy - The Five Star Movement - took place. At a forum in the Italian Parliament was presented the principles and rules of work in BUDD, one of which attracted the attention of the founder of the Italian movement, and he offered it for discussion and eventual introduction into the political process at the national level. The rule is to select political candidates by Sortition (by a lot), under a procedure with at least two guarantors-members and a test of personality characteristics, a key feature of the truly democratic process associated with the implementation of Direct Democracy. In addition to it, our main principle to make decisions in the Executive body is based on consensus, exactly as is the model in the Federal Council in Switzerland.

At the same time, two-year short-term mandates have been adopted, which, combined with the elections by Sortition, allows for broader and freer participation without turning the members and candidates into professional, lifetime politicians. It is of paramount importance, that with BUDD for the first time in a political organization in Bulgaria, there is a practical implementation of a Code of Ethics. It sets the moral basis of citizen participation and at the same time is the basis for the assessment of personality characteristics, as well as for a relevant Activity's Ordinance, which, together with the completely new Statute for the Bulgarian standards, ensures the lasting preservation and application of these principles to the achievement of the goals of the organization - winning a majority for legislative changes in the direction of applying the three basic political ideas in favour and with a care of each Bulgarian citizen.

The chairmanship of the organization is shared, the co-chair and representative now is Mr Georgi Nedelchev in Sofia and the second is Mrs Svetla Milousheva. The National Coordinator is Mrs Albena Miteva, the Executive Council consists of seven people, including the co-chairs, the National Coordinator, and the Balkan Coordinator. The Controlling Council consists of three, one of them as a Chair. The National Assembly of the organization is held once a year or more rarely. The structure of the organization in the country is based on a physically geographic principal with ten zones, which are divided into 10 regions and there are the respective municipalities, which now are 265 in total for the country. In this way, each zone, region, and local municipality should have its coordinator, all of them to cover the full number of settlements in the country. The principle of coordination of Bulgarians abroad is similar, almost entirely based on the Internet. The main task today is the building and maintenance of the digital organization's coordination system. Funding is completely transparent through donations and symbolic membership fees, and the organization completely rejects subsidizing the political process and is about eliminating it by introducing a new regulation on citizens’ (crowd) funding. There is no so-called civil quota in the BUDD, due to the citizens, rather than a partocratic nature of the organization, and all candidates must be members of the organization, signing the Declaration of Membership with acceptance of the organizational rules and documents or if they are members of other Civic organizations, they must sign the BUDD's Agreement for Common Action. On this basis, our organization may cooperate with other related national, regional, European, and World organizations through an Agreement on General Political Action and Agreement for Cooperation. If for some reason, sympathizers and followers cannot be members of BUDD, they can contribute by participating in projects and initiatives of the Institute for Bulgarian Direct Democracy (IBDD), where experts and specialists can develop the undiscovered potential of Citizen's Initiatives.

BUDD has serious experience with the electoral process of all kinds of elections and from the last Municipal Elections has its first elected representatives - two municipal counsellors in the Nessebar Municipality, one in Pazardzhik Municipality, as well as a Mayor of Ruptsi Village, Cherven Bryag Municipality.

The Executive Council with its seven members, two of them as Co-chairs and one as National Coordinator:

Mr Georgi Nedelchev – Co-chair and representative, Mrs Svetla Milousheva – Co-chair, Mrs Albena Miteva – National Coordinator, Mrs Katya Nikolova – Balkan Coordinator, Mr Todor Stankov, Mr Georgi Chipov, Mrs Desislava Georgieva.

The Controlling Council with its three members, one of them as Chair:

Mr Daniel Bojilov – Chair, Mrs Rositsa Kavazova, Mrs Elena Porodinska.

Communication and contact details:

1142 Sofia, Bulgaria,

45, Khan Krum Str., +359 89 5620061, contact@budd.bg, budd@budd.bg

BUDD - Political Party: www.budd.bg, www.facebook.com/buddbg

IBDD – NGO/analytical center/think-tank: https://www.facebook.com/ibddbg/

Initiative International Movement for Money reform: https://www.facebook.com/chistipari

Initiative Basic Income: https://www.facebook.com/BasicIncomeBulgaria/

Free BUDD Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBpxLreeIRC04TeH6H20IBw

Media of IBDD: www.agorapost.bg