Der Standard: Bulgaria can open its doors to Russia ᐉ News from Fakti.bg – World

The elections on October 27 are the seventh in a row for the last three years in Bulgaria, recalling Austria’s “Der Standart” and pointing out the main reasons for this: neither a government can be formed as a result of the vote, or it does. won’t last long. The conservative GERB party, which leads the vote, is struggling to find coalition partners as anti-reform forces are attacked by allegations of corruption. Europe. And the other parties are either friends of the Kremlin or they are also considered corrupt. Thus, Bulgaria slides from one temporary solution to another, and only one of them remains stable: President Rumen Radev, who takes pro-Kremlin positions, told the Austrian publication.

Pro-Russian forces in power in Bulgaria?

This political instability is certainly beneficial to the Kremlin and partly explains the rise of the pro-Russian party “Vazrazhdane”, which could become the second political force in the upcoming early elections on October 27, writes Der Standart further, referring to the polls before the vote.

The Austrian edition cites Ruslan Stefanov from the Sofia Center for the Study of Democracy (CID), according to which the thinking of many Bulgarians is largely dominated by Russia. When, for example, Vladimir Putin talks to Bulgaria especially when he threatens a nuclear strike, he encourages the forces in the country that want a rapprochement with Russia.

“This conquest started in the 19th century and continued through the Soviet Union, which is why a large part of the Bulgarian population has a positive opinion of Russia,” Stefanov told the Austrian publication. According to the author of the article, Adelheid Wölfl, the new Patriarch Daniil is one of the most important mouthpieces of pro-Kremlin propaganda. About his election, Archimandrite Nicanor said that it was done “according to the KGB textbook”. the publication remembers.

At the same time as all this, Bulgaria does not reliably impose EU sanctions against the Kremlin, “Der Standart” further emphasizes. It is true that 70 Russian spies were expelled from Bulgaria, some of them Orthodox priests, but according to Ruslan Stefanov, this happened only on the basis of information from other NATO countries, and not because of a policy regular Bulgarian authorities. “The ability to check the influence of the Kremlin is almost zero,” the expert criticized, adding: “The ability to apply sanctions is also decreasing because pro-European parties have lost support .”

Therefore, it is becoming more likely that pro-Russian forces will come to power in Bulgaria, said “Der Standart” and Vesela Cherneva from the European Council for Foreign Policy said: “It is possible that GERB will form a coalition with” Vasrazhdane .” if Donald Trump wins the presidential elections in the United States. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is seen as a mediator between Eastern Europe and at one time he was in a coalition with the far-right party “Jobik”.

The Austrian edition continues the rise of “Vazrazhdane” from 2021, when the party first entered parliament with just under 5 percent support. Since then, the pro-Russian party has increased its support at least three times, writing “Der Standart” and recalling two of the latest campaigns of “Vazrazhdane”, which has Russian influence. to be seen – the law requested on “foreign agents”, which aims to stigmatize non-governmental organizations, as well as the law approved by Parliament in the meantime, prohibiting “propaganda ” on non-traditional sexuality. Of course, there is no such propaganda in Bulgaria – here it is more about promoting hatred towards sexual minorities, said “Der Standart”.

It’s not just Renaissance

Besides Vazrazhdane, BSP and Velichie are also considered close to the Kremlin. For example, Socialist MP Borislav Gutsanov constantly repeats the Kremlin’s main points and leads a campaign against the expansion of wind energy on the Black Sea coast – perhaps because this would allow Bulgaria to be more non- dependent from Russia, writes the Austrian “Der Standart”.