Honorary pensions justified for deserving Bulgarians

Bulgaria's government plans an income-independent honorary pension for musicians, as a fire 25 years ago in the archive of their then employer, the state concert bureau, destroyed their employment certificates. The daily Standart defends the government's controversial bill: "If tomorrow one [of the musicians] dies in misery, people will be up in arms because the state does nothing to help its important personalities. We must decide: either we complain in an egalitarian spirit that there should be no honorary pension bonuses for great Bulgarians, or we lament that the state leaves them to face old age and death all alone! ... In any event we owe these people a debt. This is not about socialism and its icons. It is not a question of whether we liked them as artists or not. They symbolise Bulgarian culture in the second half of the 20th century and that in itself is worthy of our respect."

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