One in four people in Bulgaria is a senior citizen, MP Tanya Gyuryusheva of Progressive Bulgaria said in parliament on October 1, marking the International Day of Older Persons.
Bulgaria has more than 1.5 million older people, she said, and that means 1.5 million human stories. Behind every number is a person with a name, a family, a career, memories and hopes — not just a statistic, Gyuryusheva said.
The MP said conversations about older people should not focus only on their need for support, since they still have a great deal to give to the country and to their families.
"Older people are not someone we leave behind in the past — they are the bridge that carries the past into the future," Gyuryusheva said.
The skills and knowledge they have built up over a career can help younger people through mentoring, she said. Young people bring energy and fresh ideas, but that energy can lose its way without those who walked the path before them.
People tend to take older generations for granted and rarely stop to think that each of them carries battles fought, worries never spoken and moments of joy that shaped the world we live in today. Age does not bring a burden, Gyuryusheva said — it brings hard-won wisdom, and it is the clearest mirror of who we are today.
Loneliness is a serious problem, the MP said. In small towns and villages, where transport is poor and the population is shrinking, many older people live in complete isolation. Food and money matter to them, but so does ordinary conversation and simple attention from others.
No government programme can fully replace the need for community, or the feeling that someone remembers you and is waiting for you, she added. Older people hold a living memory, deep experience, inner strength and a true understanding of the past that no screen or algorithm can replace, Gyuryusheva said.
This is not a cause for one party, she said — it belongs to Bulgaria's future.
"Our job as a country is not simply to add years to life, but to add life to those years," the MP said in closing.