“It is possible that she will become the first Bulgarian president to face something akin to a ‘public impeachment’—à la Yanukovych, who tried to steal his country’s European future. There will be public pressure, a withdrawal of political trust, and demands that she answer for her actions and words.”
This was written on Facebook by former Bulgarian ambassador to Moscow Ilyan Vassilev. We are publishing his comment without editorial changes: “This victory may prove Pyrrhic for Yotova and Radev. Because it comes at the price of a brutal campaign of false claims and manipulations that inflicted deep wounds on Bulgarian democracy—wounds that simply cannot be overlooked.
Yotova dragged her husband into the campaign in an unscrupulous manner. She owes answers regarding the attempts to conceal the truth surrounding the Pardons Commission. The truth came out. She spread the claim that Andrey Gyurov would send Bulgarian soldiers to Ukraine. These are not minor pre-election exaggerations. These are questions of integrity, political responsibility, and the limits of what is acceptable in a democratic campaign.
How exactly does she imagine that she will avoid these questions now that she is president? The presidency is not a refuge from political responsibility. On the contrary—it demands an even higher degree of integrity, transparency, and accountability.
Bulgaria emerges from these elections deeply divided. Yotova may receive the formal legitimacy of an electoral victory, but that does not automatically mean that she has won the public’s trust. Especially given these voter turnout figures.
It is possible that she will become the first Bulgarian president to face something akin to a “public impeachment”—à la Yanukovych, who tried to steal his country’s European future. There will be public pressure, a withdrawal of political trust, and demands that she answer for her actions and words.
The elections are over. The questions remain. And the answers will not be avoidable through new slogans or by invoking the electoral victory.”