“I will not say that it is a left-versus-right confrontation, because Iliyana Yotova and Kiril Valchev are not representatives of the left for me. We have seen for a long time that purely ideologically political forces are emptied of content, even less so in a majority election – the most majoritarian, such as the presidential one. I would say that this is a clash between vertical and horizontal power“, shared journalist Emilia Milcheva on BTV.
In her words, we are talking about representatives of a generation in which the values are very familiar to us from a past in which power was at the top and the people were at the bottom. “We see this quite well embodied in the way in which “Progressive Bulgaria“ realizes power and consumes it“.
“We also observe a striving for a horizontalization, democratization of the institution and of power, which for me is represented by the couple Andrey Gyurov and Georgi Kandev“, she added.
“Also for me this is a clash of values, which is indisputable. Ms. Yotova, at least at the moment, while her stronger emancipation from Mr. Rumen Radev has not yet become apparent, seems to me to be a representative of the status quo to a large extent, which he has already defined with his 9 years of presidential mandate“, she pointed out.
In her words, these are people who defend patriotic, conservative, to some extent national-populist values against those who are liberal in spirit and who are currently seriously threatened in a large part of Europe.
“I agree that this is not a clash between left and right. In my opinion, the presidential elections for years have not been a battle between that. The last time we had any kind of clash between the left and the right was in 2001 - Petar Stoyanov versus Georgi Parvanov," commented journalist Alexander Simov.
According to him, since then we have had a movement towards the presidential elections not being a political, ideological clash, but rather a clash of personalities and symbols.
„I do not agree with the idea that the clash here is between centralized and horizontal. In what way do Gyurov and Kandev represent something horizontal? This is a triumph of self-admiration,“ he commented.
According to Simov, the clips of Gyurov and Kandev provide a wonderful answer to the question: “Yes, we will run“, but there is no answer to the question: “What are we running for?“.
“Clips about how you change clothes and do a photo shoot are wonderful to catch the interest of a wider audience, but they do not provide an answer to the question of what kind of change you are ultimately the bearer of,“ he commented.