Galery

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Even if they were together and had entered parliament, it would not change anything. The voters are tired of the agony they have been experiencing for more than 10 years already. The major question cannot be whether they will enter parliament or not. The meaning of the existence of political parties is to provide solutions. So, sooner or later, this should have happened, although all claim in the specific situation that it would be better if they had entered the 42^nd National Assembly.

But now, the ground is clear. This may be the good news. It is because, more or less, there are four branches of the Bulgarian Communist Party in the Bulgarian parliament at present. The majority of educated, urban, Western-minded people in Bulgaria do not see their representative in this parliament. We have in it former members of the Bulgarian Communist Party, who were part of the lower level service staff - drivers, militiamen and others, who are part of GERB at present. We have successors to the nomenclature, who are part of the BSP. We have some crypto communists, Slavophiles and nationalists, such as in the Attack party and the MRF, for which sufficient documentation has appeared and we all know how it was established.

So, do you think that some reformist forces will “pop up” after the clearing in Bulgaria to take up the reins at a certain point?

They cannot pop up, but the people who need such representation can achieve this. Of course, it all depends on whether there will be specific individuals at the specific place to make sufficient effort.

But I am saying it again – now the ground is clear. Whereas before, this 22-year history prevented any attempt to create such a new formation. For example, one was with Ivan Kostov, another with Nadezhda Neinski, they had a quarrel and then, they reconciled. Many people are really tired of this Latin series and the result was predetermined.

Were the elections free and fair? Was the public opinion manipulated and how much?

I understand this question in two parts. On the one hand, from a purely technological point of view as regards the carrying out of the elections and the counting of the ballots, there are numerous reports of violations.

But even if we assume that in many places there were even fake ballots, remaking of protocols, buying of votes, the rate of the manipulated vote could not be so high as to change the whole picture. Of course, when the activity is low, the manipulated vote proves quite decisive.

The major problem in my opinion is that there was no real campaign. That the environment was poisoned, that the people did not really understand what the parties offered, that the scandals, which had started 2-3 months before the elections, actually “jammed” the information flow and there was no room for the reasonable offers.

I am saying this because you asked me about the traditional right wing. The party of former European commissioner Meglena Kuneva and former Prime Minister Ivan Kostov had very specific proposals which the representatives of small- and medium-sized businesses would like to hear for certain and expected someone to offer similar solutions. However, they did not hear them because they could not do so during the scandals.