© Tsvetelina Belutova, Capital
– “All hopes of the extremely exhausted Bulgarian electorate are currently accumulated on Rumen Radev and” We continue the change “.
The president Rumen Radev won a second term, but with unprecedentedly low voter turnout. Dnevnik published its first comments after the end of the runoff of political observers and political scientists. The posts are from Facebook and BNR and do not claim to be exhaustive.
Assoc. Prof. Hristo Hristev, lecturer in law at Sofia University:
Congratulations to the winners! And now it remains to find an answer to the question of how to restore confidence in the political system and the institutions of democracy in those 70% of Bulgarian citizens who did not vote.
Because let’s not be fooled, a democracy in which 70% of citizens do not run for president is in a severe crisis. Regardless of the change of faces.
Radoslav Bimbalov, advertiser:
The electoral passivity we are witnessing shows the rejection by voters of the opportunity to express their views on the processes taking place at the top of the state. This is a frightening conclusion that we must reach as a society. Bulgarians have stopped believing that it makes sense to vote.
The presidential election initially went as pointless because of the insurmountable difference between one of the candidates and the other, until two or three candidates appeared, which turned the election into a more interesting competition, and at the end of the campaign things ended drastically.
We will go into the textbooks on political marketing, on PR with the things that happened in the last month. At the beginning of the presidential election, I predicted that this would happen because we have serious inflation of the leaders. Lackeys and performers are pushing forward. Weak characters cannot stand firm in a majority election.
Mikhailina Abrasheva, psychologist:
It has no legitimacy. You are not trying to go beyond the framework set by low activity. One is the responsibility when there are millions behind you, another when there are thousands. And the responsibility, and the sense of significance, and the self-esteem, and the evaluation of others, this is lowered when the turnout is low. When a statesman starts from low positions, he easily crosses borders, even personal ones, he can easily reach authoritarian rule, he can easily become uncontrollable.
Purely psychologically, people got bored, not tired. It is difficult today to find a cause that unites. When what is happening does not make sense and does not bring satisfaction, the social psyche allows strong negative emotions to creep out of the collective subconscious – fear, insecurity, anxiety, anger, insult. Because of the strong emotional fear, we no longer trust … There is no way for a country to be successful if the first people in it break the law.
Maria Spirova, editor at Oxford:
There was no risk of getting another president besides Rumen Radev. No risk. The only risks that will be or have ever been relevant are those associated with his presidency. For them, in the name of the idea of effectively turning our backs on the bitter past, we seem to have decided to speak either good or nothing.
Rumen Radev and “We continue the change” (PP) currently have all the hopes of the extremely exhausted Bulgarian electorate and he is right that there is no room for mistakes. The honeymoon can last a long time, because both the leaders of PP and Radev have the ability to please each other with minimal energy consumption.
But eventually the parade will disperse and the confetti will settle. The cart will still have to tread in deep mud. And then it will matter whether the really emerging coalition is a team that is slowly pulling it forward, or we are just slipping under new management.
Assoc. Prof. Albena Taneva, lecturer in public administration at Sofia University:
In this election, something that stood out stood out, but has now become very prominent. The tendency to replace politics with a show seems like a good idea, but it doesn’t really mobilize support and trivialize topics.
The set anti-records on voter turnout cannot but be a worrying thing. (…) This is the main thing that legitimizes the power in a republican political system – the participation itself. It is not a question of what proportion you have crushed your opponent in the elections if at least half of its citizens are not behind the government. (…) And I hope that the behavior of the Ministry of Interior is not a request for a style of governance in the future, in any form.
Toncho Kraevski, political scientist:
Nothing surprising, but that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to worry about. This hysterical reaction of the government to those traveling across the border, the alleged financial abuses at the university, the demonstrations in front of the Turkish embassy – all these things were an act of repression that was unfounded.
Bulgarian emigrants in Turkey have the right to vote. These people are not much different from us. If they do not feel emotionally and personally engaged with the candidates, they may not go out to vote. They form their will to vote in the same way that voters form their will in 24 MIR, for example. Isn’t there a strong influx of votes for the same political party in all elections in 24 MIR? Can we say that these people are also enslaved? To treat these citizens that their will is only an instrument of some kind of political manipulation and they do not make their decisions autonomously is very ugly.
Simeon Vladov, actor:
One of Bulgaria’s biggest problems is that there is no strong civil society. It must be created, and it is created by individual citizens who boldly express their civic position.
Democracy in Bulgaria is a facade. What is promised is not being fulfilled or is not being fulfilled properly. How can people believe? If the Bulgarian politicians who lead the country do not solve the biggest problem, which is poverty, they will not be able to do anything else. The next problem is the birth rate. It is not possible to constantly say before elections how we are in the last place in terms of birth rate and in the first place in terms of mortality and no one does anything in this direction. Something radical needs to be done to make people believe in these politicians that they really think about the people.
The most important things that excite people and determine their lives are education, healthcare and culture. If these three things are bad, there can be no healthy and intelligent nation of capable people.
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