In these elections, the battle will be for every vote. This was commented on by political scientist and university lecturer Assoc. Prof. Milen Lyubenov to the Bulgarian National Radio.
"Limiting the number of polling stations in countries outside the EU will have exactly the opposite effect and this will anger too many people and increase voter turnout", he pointed out.
The agreement of Deputy Ombudsman Maria Filipova to be acting Prime Minister did not surprise me, said the political scientist: "The president now has a choice. To a large extent, the way in which the election campaign will proceed will depend on the choice of Andrey Gyurov or Maria Filipova, as the parties will develop different practices. I think that one or the other choice can benefit some parties and be to the detriment of others".
According to him, Rumen Radev's campaign will be centered around his personal image: "We have seen this with Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, and then with Boyko Borisov, when he created GERB. ... Otherwise, the faces on the lists are important, because this will tell us a lot about Radev's intentions, where he will position himself and whether this party will have capacity. I do not expect a clear ideological positioning, because the efforts to gather as many votes as possible from both the left and the right, and from the national-populist spectrum, are obvious. Rather, his messages will be amorphous. He will most likely focus on the topic related to the dismantling of the oligarchic model and corruption in the country".
He pointed out that he is reserved about whether we will see a real desire to fight corruption and the rule of law, or whether we will simply see the replacement of one oligarchic model with another.
According to Assoc. Prof. Lyubenov, Radev's foreign policy orientation for the 9 years as president is known: "With an orientation similar to Orban and Fico. Radev will try to avoid foreign policy topics, as he will count on attracting additional votes from the centrist space, but it will be difficult for him to attract pro-European and liberal democratic votes".
Lyubenov did not rule out some part of GERB's clientelistic structures, since it is largely a clientelistic party, from reorienting itself towards Rumen Radev's new formation.
It is interesting whether the electoral rise of PP-DB after the protests will continue, or will stop after Rumen Radev's appearance on the parliamentary field, the political scientist emphasized. "Probably after the elections, the topic of a coalition or at least a majority will arise, related to the election of a new Supreme Judicial Council and a new prosecutor general. So PP-DB will have to position itself on this issue. It is obvious that there is disagreement there. I do not expect them to give an answer to this question now, but after the elections they will have to do so".