Only one event could fill the capital hall “Arena Armeets” faster than Greek pop singer Nikos Vertis or a match between tennis players Grigor Dimitrov and Novak Djokovic - leadership debates. From time to time, journalists and voters dream about what the election campaign would look like, and also the results of the elections, if the leaders of the parties dare to participate in them.
Bulgaria lacks a political tradition for such agitation, and the discussions organized by the big televisions look more like a boring TV show. For a certain amount of time, everyone who appeared recited clichéd promises, common phrases and party slogans, without any real dialogue or clash of ideas. Politicians, as is well known, love the media comfort of having a preferred anchor or else being the center of directional microphones and cameras to control the dynamics and duration of communication. Debates? No thanks.
Reload
Although the Bulgarian political system is not two-party, as the American and British ones are basically, a public discussion between Boyko Borisov, Delyan Peevski, Kiril Petkov/Asen Vassilev, Kostadin Kostadinov, Toshko Yordanov, Atanas Zafirov will bring energy to the stagnant pre-election campaign. This is completely different from insults, threats, outright cynicism and exchanging sarcastic or simply stupid remarks in a plenary hall. But it's not impossible that during the debates someone will say, "Will you shut up, man!" (Will you shut up, man!), as presidential candidate Joe Biden did in 2020 in Cleveland, irritated by the continuous insinuations of Donald Trump.
A public discussion between political leaders is unlikely to influence those who have decided who they will vote for to radically change their preferences. Studies show that debates influence a few percent of swing voters. But they will highlight the personal qualities of the candidates – their confidence, their ability to react under pressure, their ability to communicate or their aggression, incompetence and lack of vision. So the audience will see the key differences between them, and maybe similarities as well.
But it all depends on the questions. How, for example, would Borisov and the person sanctioned under “Magnitsky” Peevski, why, according to them, there are no convictions for corruption at the highest levels of power and what they will do to make the fight against corruption more effective. Or for Kostadin Kostadinov to name how many billions the Bulgarian taxpayers pay for the expensive electricity from coal - once in the accounts, and the second time through financial injections for the industry in the Mariska Basin, and how long it will be like this. Asen Vasilev - can incomes be increased without raising taxes and when will civil servants pay at least part of their insurance. All of them should answer whether Bulgaria renounces the green transition, since the rulers deftly avoid voting on the timetable for the decommissioning of coal-fired power plants from 2022.
The biggest effect
Polarization in Bulgarian political life is strong and communication is dominated by negativity and mutual attacks. Leadership debates will give parties the opportunity to present their ideas and platforms directly to voters who don't read them anyway. Politicians will be forced to give concrete answers to difficult questions they otherwise avoid. And running away from an answer in public debates is defeat.
In Bulgaria, where voter turnout is drying up more and more, leadership debates can stimulate political engagement. One politician will ramble, another will be arrogant and lie, another will not bother to talk about broken promises. The lack of class, knowledge and/or spontaneity will show and everyone in the audience will judge what they like and what they don't like, what alternatives are offered to them and who is worth voting for. It is also interesting how a politician would look when he would not have the opportunity to choose which questions to answer and which to ignore without breaking a sweat.
Backroom deals
In the US televised election debate 64 years ago between presidential candidates John Kennedy and Richard Nixon, the young Kennedy looked better and Nixon was sweating profusely, and this is now a textbook example.
But the politicians in Bulgaria do not even think of facing each other in debates, and they will not succeed because of the agreements behind the scenes. They are considering electoral technologies that would facilitate the assembly of a ruling majority - “bonus MPs” for the winning party, mixed electoral system, higher than 4% threshold for parliament. For the rest, they lack courage and honesty.