The first 100 days are not to register successes, but to register a style of governance, stability of the government, mechanisms by which both parliamentary support for the ruling party and the cabinet of ministers itself functions. This is how the chairman of the Bulgarian Association for Political Science, Prof. Rumyana Kolarova, commented on the first 100 days of the "Zhelyazkov" cabinet in the "Metronome" program on Radio "Focus".
"We are observing something that we can unequivocally define as normalization. Neither the personality of the Prime Minister, nor the way in which the three ruling parties interact goes beyond the standards of European democracies, of European coalition cabinets. And the second aspect of this normalization is that we have parliamentary government," analyzes Prof. Kolarova.
According to her, there is a very clear opposition, fragmented, and a minority cabinet from the very beginning. "The withdrawal of Dogan's faction did not change the form of the cabinet at all – from the very beginning, this cabinet was a minority one," she specified.
When asked why the public is rather skeptical of the government, Kolarova replied that it is normal to lose some of the support when you announce and start making reforms. "From my point of view, the success of this government should not be associated with public support, at least in the short term. This is also the logic of the 4-year mandates. The first year, unpopular measures are certainly being taken so that their effect can be felt. There are no people in the world who, when you tell them that you are going to raise taxes or increase anything else, another burden that is on citizens or on companies, would feel happy, or if you say that you are going to cut public spending, would they support this measure".
"During these 4 years, constantly, whether when we had caretaker cabinets or when we had these regular cabinets with a very short life, the rulers took into account precisely the dynamics of support for them. And that is why we are in this situation. That is why there is talk that the state is falling apart or there is talk that there is no government, that there is no pilot in the plane, that we are moving without direction and so on. This is the reason", concluded Prof. Kolarova.