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What is happening in Greece shows this. The problems faced by the countries of the Western Balkans prove it. I.e., during these four years, a number of unpopular but basic decisions have been taken, thanks to which this policy evolved. Hereinafter, it may be more or less successful. It can experience ups and downs, but at least the road is permanently chosen. And this gives a sense of security even to the most biased to some extent. As it is popular to say: We, the countries from the European Union, will not leave it unless some exclusive upheaval happens or the EU itself falls apart.

Of course, from now on, the most important thing is which people will govern us. The popular Bulgarian proverb “help yourself and God will help you” is absolutely valid in this case. Of course, the EU is not God, it is far from that image, but in all cases it is the framework for us. Whether we will be able to use its tools properly for the benefit of our own citizens, whether this will be a motivation and a source of national pride depends only on us. Because I see that people in Bulgaria tend to blame politicians.

And probably politicians have countless sins. But politicians are the choice of the people. Currently, the popular topic of whether voting should be mandatory or optional is being discussed. I have been extremely allergic to mandatory things for a long time and I will say that not giving a choice, but at the same time making voting mandatory, is not morally good, and I think that it is not good even from a political and legal point of view either. Another thing is that the obvious reluctance to vote is the protest vote. And where will this protest vote go, if people are forced to vote? Also, imagine what a “monster” this will become, since people strongly support each other in protests just in order to show their reluctance to those who require them to vote for them. Therefore, this is a very dangerous thing. On the other hand, at first glance and from a populist perspective, everyone says that this will immediately make people support small right-wing parties, for example. I do not think that such a thing would happen. Of course, the question is disputable.

We need to find the things which motivate people in seeking solutions and their right to influence politics. If voters could solve the problems, they would be leaders. Obviously, they want to delegate their rights to leaders, but the important thing here is to which leaders and in what way to do this in order to ensure their interests in the best possible way. But as I often say, if this was easy, it would have been done long ago. But this is the way.

Why has the political right in Bulgaria failed to unite?

Many and varied answers can be given to that question, some of which pretend to be original. What often happens is that we look for reasons elsewhere, but not in us – for example, in the popular thesis of conspiracy and how someone splits us from the outside. The truth is that the fault is all ours - the inability to form priorities and the lack of team thinking. I will say it again - the most powerful years of the government in which I participated were when we really worked as a team, side by side, on the priorities of Bulgaria. At such times energy is very strong, catchy and involving. People really supported our government even during the years when we made unpopular decisions. But when the situation is really difficult, when there is a lack of perspectives, at such times individualism and a search for solutions appear, but also the Southern people typically claim that everyone is right.

At this point, with some diplomacy of course, I will avoid discussing the issue of dependencies, since obviously, during all these years of the political right, a lot of people looked for their own dependencies or were forced to find their own ways. I certainly do not know the whole truth about what happened. Maybe each one claims to know part of the truth. Surely, no one knows the whole truth of why we got here.

But I am convinced that the only way is to offer a serious alternative to the government in Bulgaria, which is obviously suffering from the greatest ills of transition, including dependencies and backstage power. Majority vote is now often mentioned. What is happening must be very indicative for voters, since no one knows who actually hides behind majority players. Or, for example, the big risk of buying votes. How much riskier would it be if people who have the means, the so-called oligarchs, bought their deputies or ministers or even prime ministers?

Therefore, everything needs to be a very complex and difficult balance so that public interests can be