What role does civil society play in times of transition?

Do join us to discuss this question in a histoTALK on 15 March, 2pm CET! Join the webinar at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81187626676. A live stream will be available on Facebook. A strong civil society is key for any democracy, but it has an even more important role to play at the end of a totalitarian regime and the beginning of transition to democracy. In this webinar, we want to take a closer look at the processes that enabled the emergence of civil society in Eastern Europe at the end of communism and discuss its role in toppling authoritarian governments and in paving the way to a democratic transition. Louisa Slavkova, executive director at the Sofia Platform Foundation (Bulgaria) will moderate the event and discuss with:

• Christoph Eichhorn, German Ambassador to Bulgaria since 2019. Before, he served as German Ambassador to Estonia (2015-19). From 1998 to 2011 he held leading positions on transatlantic affairs at the Embassy in Washington (USA) and the German Foreign Office Berlin, after working in the Foreign Minister’s personal office (1992-98) and as Cultural Attaché at the Embassy in Moscow (1989-92). He began his career as a journalist for German Public Radio and as an EU consultant;
• Momchil Metodiev, professor of history in the New Bulgarian University, specialized on the Cold War, Editor-in-Chief of the Christianity and Culture Journal, and Research Fellow at the Institute for Studies of the Recent Past in Sofia (Bulgaria);
• Olena Pravylo, chairwoman of the Congress of Cultural Activist, an NGO based in Kiev (Ukraine). The Congress aims to strengthen intercultural cooperation on a global level and promote activism as a method of creating change; and
• YOU! We are looking forward to your participation and questions!

The event is a cooperation between the Sofia Platform Foundation and histoCON:LINE and part of the series histoTALK. It builds on the documentary series “Sofia, 1989: In the footsteps of a revolution” that commemorates the end of communism and the beginning of transition to democracy in Bulgaria, 31 years ago. The series is part of the Transition Dialogue project and is done in cooperation with histoCON:LINE, funded by the Federal Agency for Civic Education (Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung (bpb)). The event will be recorded.