“Political crisis and global foreign policy conflict have marked the Bulgarian reality in 2022. President Rumen Radev has amassed unregulated power and political and managerial influence, which he would find very difficult to voluntarily relinquish and hand back to politicians.
Bulgaria must return in 2023 to the path of true parliamentary democracy, which can radiate stable executive power,” said political scientist Tsvetanka Andreeva.
According to her, the event of 2022 for both Bulgaria and Europe, but entirely in a negative context, is the war that Vladimir Putin started in Ukraine.
“This is a huge pressure on our civilization. Unfortunately, it has deepened the crises of our political failure that have lasted for more than 2 years – the cyclical failure to form a stable cabinet. The political crisis and global foreign policy conflict have marked the Bulgarian reality,” Andreeva said in an interview for BGNES.
He stressed that Bulgaria’s big problem right now is trying to create an alternative political model. The political scientist noted that when we talk about such models, we see that they are impossible at the parliamentary level: “Revival”, which is against the Eurozone and Euro-Atlantic structures, is parliamentary limited and will remain within the 11-12% .
However, the situation with the Radev model is completely different.
“President Rumen Radev has amassed unregulated power and political and managerial influence, which he would find very difficult to give up voluntarily, to give back to politicians through the constitution. Let’s see where because of his political ambitions, where because of the political crisis , effectively wields power in Bulgaria for entire periods on his own without a parliament, and now his government with a parliament too. It will be difficult for parliamentarianism to take power back from Radev,” Andreeva said.
However, this will happen because the latest polls show a negative trend in support for the president.
“Talk about his alternative as a presidential republic will erode as support for him erodes.” This is inevitable, because Rumen Radev is trapped in his own image, which he has been building for many years, both in the first and in the second term, ”Andreeva said.
He recalled that he has managed to come into conflict with all political parties and has made many enemies to prove that he is an alternative to the party model, which we see that he is not.
Andreeva is convinced that there will be a breakthrough in 2023. “I would very much like it to be in an optimistic direction – to form a stable parliamentary majority.” Bulgaria should return to the path of true parliamentary democracy, which can radiate a stable executive power”, underlined the political scientist. He warned that other scenarios, far from positive, should not be excluded.
“We will truly emerge from the current stage of political crisis. War is a huge evil that has affected the Ukrainian people and all of Europe. For the first time we hear how Jens Stoltenberg warns that the war could go beyond the borders of Ukraine. This should alert all of Eastern Europe, including Bulgaria,” the political scientist noted.
He emphasized that war has a disciplinary function.
“The party elites will be much more disciplined. We are observing a positive process: from how we will not form a coalition with anyone, politicians enter the regime, why we cannot form a coalition with them. They already seem sorry. The next stage is to look for arguments so we should form a coalition,” Andreeva said.
He noted with regret that the Euro-Atlantic majority has not materialised.
“Obviously it couldn’t have happened two months ago, but it will certainly be talked about again after New Year’s Eve. I am pessimistic about the third and second terms, and not because I am pessimistic, but because the political parties are still unable to restore political dialogue. I think the politicians will be disciplined, because crises have this function,” Andreeva points out.
First of all, in the coming year, efforts should be made to strengthen parliamentarianism, the parliamentary republic.
“In the sense that it not only has to work again, but also become even stronger. Obviously this crisis, as well as others we have observed over the past 30 years, demonstrates that Bulgaria, although a parliamentary republic, still has a lot to claim, even with the opening up of the constitution to strengthen parliamentarianism.
Some experts have even talked about introducing a bicameral parliament. These are things that will take us out of the risk of an individual political regime, which historically has always been detrimental to our democracy, regardless of its nature,” said the political scientist.
He hopes to see more responsible and reasonable politicians.
“I hope Bulgarian society has leaders who lead and don’t follow their electorate. To have much more courage in setting the agenda and not to follow public populist attitudes,” said Cvetanka Andreeva.
