Comment by Alexander Detev:
Nothing has been decided until election day, but the situation in which Bulgaria will wake up on April 20 has already taken shape: Rumen Radev's "Progressive Bulgaria" will come first in the elections, but most likely will not have a majority in the next parliament. The former president will have to reach out to one of the other political forces that will find a place in it - GERB-SDF, PP-DB, DPS, "Vazrazhdane" and the BSP, if the party led by Krum Zarkov enters parliament, which is probably something Radev's camp is keeping its fingers crossed for.
However, most Bulgarian citizens are unlikely to wake up calm on April 20. And the reason for this is one - many of the answers that the parties and especially their leaders owed to society were never given. Let's summarize.
What Rumen Radev did not answer
"Progressive Bulgaria" never clearly stated to the pro-European part of society whether it would fill the vacuum left by Viktor Orban in the EU - in the role of a spoke in the wheel of pan-European decisions and foreign policy, support for Ukraine and opposition to the hybrid war that Russia is waging against Europe. "Some hybrid foreign interference in our elections? "Do you believe that there is one," he indignantly commented to Karbovski, the only interview he gave at the culmination of the campaign.
Rumen Radev did not go into specifics about the main line of his campaign - the fight against oligarchy and corruption. Who are its specific faces and how will they fight them. Yes, individual party representatives such as Ivan Demerdzhiev have repeatedly pointed to Delyan Peevski and Boyko Borisov as the embodiment of addictions, but what are the steps to break these addictions?
Borisov, leadership debates and foreign policy issues
There was no leadership debate in this campaign either, and we owe this to a large extent to Boyko Borisov. It was he who introduced this practice - first, that the leader should not face the other party chairmen face to face and second, that there should be no press conferences in front of all the media immediately after the elections, and that the party should speak whenever and however it wants from its headquarters.
Boiko Borisov - the longest-serving Bulgarian prime minister in the country's recent history, owes many answers. But foreign policy issues, his great pride, seem to be at the forefront this time. Does Borisov want Bulgaria to go with Europe or with Trump's America, which is not shy about naming the European Union as its adversary. If the answer is with the EU - why did his Prime Minister Rosen Zhelyazkov push Bulgaria into the Peace Council, which for the moment looks like a completely dysfunctional personal adventure of Donald Trump and a group of autocrats sympathetic to him? If the answer is with the US - why then does it not respect Washington's sanctions against individuals like Vladislav Goranov, whom it included in its lists, and Delyan Peevski, with whom it was in coalition?
PP-DB, constitutional reform and personal ambitions
PP-DB tried to channel the energy of its protests and even included young people in its lists, but certain weights are holding them back. First of all, who needed this constitutional reform, which a number of competent lawyers described as ill-conceived and which led to a number of problems and paradoxes later? And most of all - was it worth the price - not only the alliance with GERB, but also the securing of a qualified majority with Peevski? Furthermore - why does a party presenting itself as democratic and liberal increasingly seem to be subordinate to personal ambitions and ego? In other words: why are Yavor Bozhankov and Lena Borislavova not on the lists?
"Vazrazhdane", BSP, MECH and "Siyanie" - dependencies and fundamental decisions
The "Vazrazhdane" party will also be part of the next parliament according to sociologists, although with a much weakened position. As the leader of a radical anti-European and anti-Western force, Kostadin Kostadinov must answer both macro questions - why does he want to attract Bulgaria to countries where people live shorter, worse, poorer and less free according to all statistics (including their own), but also very simple questions that we have been asking him for years, related to his personal enrichment from the political project he leads.
According to the latest surveys, the BSP also has a chance of finding a place in the 52nd National Assembly. The question to Krum Zarkov is simple: does he still laugh at the victims of the totalitarian regime before 1989, or as a lawyer is he now inclined to abide by the law, according to which this regime is criminal? The question is rhetorical, because his party's campaign went under the guise of pioneers and red flags.
The questions for the "Shine" coalition and MECH are related to the dependencies and commitments of their leaders, but whether they will matter at all after April 19 is uncertain.
The election campaign passed without answers to these questions, and also without a leadership debate. Therefore, all Bulgarians have one thing left to do - to tighten their belts and close their eyes, because we are entering a dark tunnel that we do not know where it leads.