Even before there is a date for the early parliamentary elections and clarity about the form in which Radev will appear at them, as well as the name of his formation, one thing is clear: the elections are currently underway with strict observance of the secrecy of the election. Like a military secret!
The former commander-in-chief is quietly casting for loyal fighters on the upcoming noisy front. The other word for casting is election(s). So the elections have begun and are not just preliminary, but even ahead of sociological surveys. They are also kept secret, which makes it easier for the jury chief to maintain a high level of tension among the supposedly broad masses of the people, longing to sit at the same table with him as representatives of the people.
As we know, a rotten apple that has crept into the executive branch can be relatively easily removed from the management crate at the will of the owner. We have seen this happen countless times in the GERB fruit and vegetable market as evidence of how the clientele behind the counter is served according to their wishes. They pay and the hop-rotten apple goes into the trash can. Or they send it to be paid to rot somewhere at an international post to glorify the native apple variety of this variety. As long as he shows enough loyalty to the boss, there is no problem in extending his term of office, albeit in another computer.
The situation is completely different with some mouse who has slipped through the cracks and has an infinite term of consumption of deputy meatballs within the life of a National Assembly. Not only can you not expel him by legal means, such as “get out of here and never see you again, because that is what I want”, but he can also harm you. So that he can infect others with mouse-sniffing.
If you and I, who are just staring from the sidelines, know this, what is left for Radev, who has been preparing for his casting for 9 years, observing the apples and mice from the highest bell tower in the world with the biggest microscope, that of the services that reveal to him the results of the activities of the secret services every morning.
And do you know which of them is the most important for this type of orientation of the commander-in-chief in the task of "who is who in the state"? You didn't guess. It is not the counterintelligence DANS. Another is more important.
It is called the National Security Service. Apparently its role is "servant" in form, but in fact it is the one best informed about the routes and meetings of the state's management elite. He knows who, where, when he travels, who he meets, what he says to them on the phone in a moment of carelessness in the car.
I know from former NSO employees that they were assigned to observe and report in writing(!) about the so-called "peculiarities" of the customers in their cars: habits, oddities and weaknesses. They filled out such forms after the work was done. I wrote about this in my book "President of Rubi", which I dedicated to former President Georgi Parvanov. With sincere love - because he turned out to be an instrument of fate, thanks to which I regained my freedom.
I explained in that book that this awareness of Parvanov, who speaks in front of the audience, explains why all sorts of comrades in important positions in the state, over whom he formally has no power, are so terribly afraid of him. For example, the mayor of Simitli Apostolov remained silent for a long time before the journalistic inquisition before finally admitting that Parvanov had indeed been in the city he governed to hunt wolves in the nearby mountains at a time when all of Bulgaria was wondering where he was and why he was not declaring national mourning for 8 Bulgarians who were burned to death on a train in Northeastern Bulgaria.
Do you think that Parvanov's former party colleague Radev has given up this invaluable practice of learning everything from his directly subordinate service while it served him, and he served its independence by resisting attempts to reform it?
Let us assume something like this so as not to unfairly liken him to the unfortunate post-presidential party builder Parvanov, who failed to such an extent in the competition as an equal with the other politicians that he handed the hot potato of his long-built party ABV with state resources into the hands of the failed former Interior Minister Rumen Petkov. It was clear that he was unable to cash in on his knowledge on equal terms in the inter-party war and was ultimately shot down like a wolf in the snow by the competition.
If we assume that Dr. Radev is of a different breed and is not like Dr. Parvanov, because he is a man of honor, of epaulettes, etc., the fact remains that for 9 years he legally used confidential information from the services that were obliged to report to him about any dangers to national security, among which corruption, as is known, is in first place in importance and prevalence. Apparently, he did not blink an eye in alarm at the fact that Bulgaria is a European champion in revealing companies (not counting the undisclosed ones) with Russian owners at a time when our country formally supports sanctions against their homeland.
If we take as a starting point the data that more than 13,000 such comrades operate here completely legally with their own staff and capital, it does not require much imagination to imagine where great support for Radev's project will come from. Hypothetically: if they set aside ten or twenty euros for this purpose, they will still receive impressive brotherly help.
What if they dig deeper? Why not? After all, Radev is declaring himself as a candidate of the patriotic front, and who is a greater patriot in Bulgaria than the brothers with legal businesses!
I don't know about the voters. They don't tell us what their current intentions are. The sociologists are slowing down the ball.
But as for the gas sellers with Russian connections, I have no doubt that they will support the most prominent fighter for preserving our dependence on Russian gas. Or from the "gas", as Kuzman Iliev stubbornly continues to call natural gas in the feminine gender on screen, and the equally competent television hosts do not correct him - either out of fear of their seats getting cold, or because they (cannot) do it that much.
It's not just anyone Iliev. He is one of the reasonably suspected stars from Radev's orbit, no matter that he created a separate party. The great economist, as the servile TV hosts present him, clearly thinks with the categories of his grandmother, who used gas for burning in the village.
Details like this help to shape the picture of Radev's emerging environment, around which a mystification reigns. All those who have identified themselves in it repeat in a trance like a quote from Mao's book of quotes the incantation "if they invite me", i.e. they do not know whether n.v. will be pleased to make them happy with their trust. Or at least they claim not to know.
This “if” will become clear sooner or later. Rather late, as late as possible, so that the muddy stream of compromising material can be channeled against less informed centers of those competing for power. Radev has reason to fear a bombardment with feces, similar to the one with which Trump, whom he likes, was virtually “famous”.
First, because he is aware that he is not at all blameless. And second, he has already been attacked in such a spirit with very bad breath by the specialists in disguising. We will know how sincere he was in the rhetoric against their “model” if they continue to shower him with more of the same. Otherwise, the foul smell of falsehood and backstage bargaining will spread treacherously and an eagle ready to chase the rats will debunk his halo.
We don't know whose cat Radev is at the moment, but the game of cat and mouse continues. In the role of the mouse, to which they throw fake interviews without any content, are all of us, the viewers.
Our chance will come at the polling stations despite the obvious attempts to turn them into a trap for the naive.
The artificially maintained mystique around Radev's project is a clever move to confuse citizens. There is also a possibility that their energy will confuse the cunning plans of this candidate for messiah. It happened last December and there is no reason why it shouldn't happen again - this time against the candidate for the winner in April, who bows to the East.
I propose a test on February 24 in connection with the 4th anniversary of Putler's aggression against Ukraine in connection with the fact that Radev predicted that Russia would win in a few days (and after failing in his prediction, he began to back down with the abstract "Russia cannot be defeated" and "the war must be ended with diplomacy").
The organizers of such a demonstration, if they are still so good, should prepare and broadcast on a big screen in the square quotes from President Radev's pro-Russian statements, including his inability to adequately respond to the reaction he provoked from his guest in Sofia, Volodymyr Zelensky, who asked him if he would agree to parts of Bulgaria being handed over to another country.
It will be a good occasion for the multitude to open the question “Whose Bulgaria is it”, to which the citizens, I hope, will answer with “it is not Radev”.