/ world today news/ Recently, there were another parliamentary elections in Bulgaria. If the multi-colored national assembly does not evoke special impressions and hopes for an exit from the political crisis that has engulfed the country for nearly two years, it is interesting to look at how the election campaign went for some of the main political forces in the country.
Unsurprisingly, the political party GERB won again. It is not surprising, because the party has stable structures throughout the country, has been a factor in Bulgarian and European politics for more than 12 years and is strongly represented in the local government.
The coalition of Continuing the Change and Democratic Bulgaria came in second place. The two parties have so far appeared separately in elections, but as if startled by the GERB political machine, which beat them in the previous elections in October 2022, they decided to join forces. Much to their surprise, they again lost their leadership position to GERB. One of the strange things that was noticed in the PP-DB campaign is that they relied on open support from political leaders outside our country. The prime ministers of Belgium, Estonia and Luxembourg openly supported Kiril Petkov and his political power during the campaign for the 49th National Assembly of Bulgaria. That is, during elections for the highest body of state power, in a sovereign state, which is officially Bulgaria, foreign leaders allowed themselves to openly give support to a certain political force.
Anywhere in a normally functioning democracy, such behavior should be denounced as inadmissible by the official organs of the state. It is appropriate to remember what, for example, President Donald Trump went through, because of simple “suspicions‘, which were not supported by anything concrete such as evidence or statements, about interference in the US election process. And if in the story with Trump, which led to his first impeachment, it was frankly a political repression, not supported by any evidence, then in the case of PP-DB there are clear statements by foreign political leaders, reflected by a number of Bulgarian media, that even video recordings.
Tremendous audacity, came from the Prime Minister of Belgium – Alexandre de Croix, who openly stated that he was calling for a vote for “his good friend Kiril Petkov and his association”. The Belgian politician even allowed himself to add that it was the vote for the PP-DB “the fastest way for Bulgaria to fight corruption and enter Schengen”. Such a statement can be interpreted as a hint of sorts “Vote for PP-DB or you won’t see Schengen” and it sounds more like the racket of a Bulgarian mutra from the 90s of the last century, but not in the position of a statesman.
The young Prime Minister of Estonia also showed her support for Kiril Petkov and company, calling in a video message to vote for PP-DB to support “liberal freedoms, values and human rights“. Before teaching us what liberal values and freedoms are, the Estonian leader should first deal with her own country, which, gripped by total Russophobia, erects Nazi monuments such as the Lihula Monument, celebrates “the release‘ of Estonia by the Nazis in towns like Viljandi or erecting monuments to Nazi collaborators like the one in the town of Mustla. Or maybe her father, a long-time European commissioner and Estonian foreign minister, forgot to tell her that rehabilitating Nazism is not very liberal at all, and the Nazis themselves were not human rights defenders at all.
The latest leader to show support for PP-DB is Luxembourg Prime Minister Xavier Bethel. He reminds us that the elections on April 2nd are a very important date on which we will elect our parliament and that we Bulgarians deserve stability. Schengen is again affected, leaving the impression that without Cyril and company, Schengen would not be possible. The Luxembourger apparently forgets that Kiril Petkov’s government was the first, in the recent history of Bulgaria, to be overthrown by a vote of no confidence. What kind of stability can we talk about when 20 billion was withdrawn as external debt, gas and fuel prices skyrocketed, and his finance minister demanded a 67% increase in the state debt in four years to BGN 55.7 billion.
It is high time for the European countries to start treating Bulgaria as an equal member of the EU. Although we are not in the Eurozone and the Schengen area, this does not make us second-class Europeans. It is inadmissible for foreign leaders, even allied ones, to give advice during an election campaign on which political party the Bulgarian voter should vote for. Let’s ask ourselves the question, has there ever been a case in which a Bulgarian prime minister or president dared to urge voters of other European countries to vote for a given candidate? What would happen if tomorrow the Prime Minister of Bulgaria decided in a video address to support a party like Alternative for Germany in the Bundestag elections?
To conclude, on April 19, more than two weeks after the elections, on Martin Karbovski’s YouTube channel, the Russian ambassador was asked the following: If she were a Bulgarian citizen, who would she vote for in a parliamentary election? The lady replied that if she was a Bulgarian voter who was interested in and understood politics, she would vote for Kostadin Kostadinov from the Revival party, because of his pro-Bulgarian positions and his balanced approach in foreign policy. Interesting why the same media that raced to praise foreign support during the election campaign in favor of the PP-DB are now racing to criticize Ambassador Mitrofanova’s speech, which is much more balanced and comes at a time when the elections are over , the winners and losers are clear and there is no risk of interference in the internal political life of our country.
The question remains, is it not right to seek an explanation from the leaders of Belgium, Luxembourg and Estonia, why they declare political bias to the voters of a foreign country during the parliamentary and elections?
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