Less than 24 hours remain until the deadline in which the parties must determine their nominations for the Bulgarian European Commissioner. Some of the parties have announced their candidates, but will we broadcast a figure behind whom everyone sits… Will we see two DPS parties on the ballot on October 27… Political scientist Milen Zhelev spoke to FACTS.
- Mr. Zhelev, how many DPS will appear in the elections on October 27?
- It turns out that this is the hot question for the election on October 27. And this is because the brand, the DPS brand, is fiercely contested - both by Dogan's DPS and by Peevski's DPS, if I may call them that. It is curious that Dogan's DPS allowed themselves to exclude one of the party chairmen, Peevski, as well as regional leaders. We heard from Peevski that this will be challenged in court. If we accept the old phrase from one time that the services are of the DPS, now the question is whether the prosecution and judicial authorities are also of the DPS. It is curious that intra-party cases will be decided by the judicial system in Bulgaria. Here it seems that Delyan Peevski himself has more influence, but what will happen… we are yet to find out. I can't judge whether this is good or bad, but this is a serious rift, the first we have seen in this party in over 30 years.
- Two brands of DPS - how does that even sound?
- Let's remember that Delyan Peevski's initial request was that his party would bear a name of the type "New Beginning". Apparently, however, he was advised by the more experienced functionaries of the party that in fact the name DPS supports this organization. The DPS name has quite a serious authority especially in mixed areas, so it will really be a tooth and nail fight for the brand. And, yes, the fact that there are two DPS is not excluded. We have seen this in Bulgarian football, where there are two CSKA – CSKA-Sofia and CSKA-1948, to the horror of the fans of this team. So two DPS brands will be a horror for the supporters of the party, and they are by no means few in our country.
- We have an office at "Glavchev 2" with three changes. What President Radev requested was done - Kalin Stoyanov is not the interior minister. What do you expect…
- We have three new ministerial names and if we have to comment on them, we must necessarily start with the interior minister. Naturally, from the very first day of the appointment of Atanas Ilkov from PP-DB, who were sharp critics of Kalin Stoyanov's candidacy, they also saw in Ilkov a hidden dependence. We all know that a caretaker interior minister will not be able to carry out any reforms in the Ministry of the Interior. That is, with or without dependence, the election is likely to play out not much differently than the past and the past. If we talk about the other two names - Krasimira Stoyanova as Minister of Transport, and Ivan Kondov – foreign minister, we don't expect much from them. We all know that Stoyanova will not be able to reform BDZ, where there have been superimposed problems for over 30 years. We can only hope that there will be no more train fires in the next two months. Otherwise, Bulgarian trains will continue to be late, BDZ will continue to have the same structural changes. The work of the new Foreign Minister Ivan Kondov is no less responsible. Bulgaria has not had a regular cabinet for a long time and we are seriously lagging behind in foreign policy. And at the same time, we see that North Macedonia is acting more or less on an anti-Bulgarian line. We have a problem with the delay with the so-called Eurozone and Schengen priorities, we do not have an exact date, it is not visible when we will be accepted. Last but not least, Dimitar Glavchev is currently facing the question of our nominations for European Commissioner. In general, it is completely irresponsible that we do not yet have a clear candidate. The functions of the European Commissioner have an extremely important role. And let's not forget that Bulgaria holds a record since 2016, when we were without a European Commissioner for six months. Let's hope that we will be able to broadcast now, because the role of the European Commissioner is not at all to be underestimated. Our representative can influence the adoption of the euro, contribute to full Schengen membership, improve relations with North Macedonia and protect Bulgarian interests in the European Commission. Last but not least, information has already appeared that Romania is about to abolish its visas for the USA, which means that our northern neighbor will be one more paragraph ahead of us. So there are countless challenges ahead of the three new ministers and let's wish them well. It is clear that it will be extremely difficult for them to achieve anything different from their predecessors in two months.
- There is more and more talk of even lower voter turnout and less legitimacy in the next elections. Are people sick of voting?
- People are bored, but it has been like that for several years. And if we are in such a situation, it is not the fault of the Bulgarian voters, but the fault of the Bulgarian politicians, because they do not run quality campaigns, run away from debates, run away from responsibility and rely on the good old behind the scenes.
- Who is this backstage good for?
- There are always winners behind the scenes in Bulgaria. The bad thing is that the parties and coalitions that talk about transparency, publicity, and democracy often miss serious chances to prove themselves. If I can return to the subject of the European Commissioner, in my opinion it is not serious PP-DB, who have the claim to be the “democratic good” in Bulgaria and lead us to the “bright European future”, not to issue a nomination for European Commissioner. No matter if she has a chance or not. They said they would not be involved in a “fixed match”. But this does not prevent them from airing their nomination. For example, BSP aired Sergey Stanishev, ITN bet on Velislava Petrov - they aired a woman, and this is important because Ursula von der Leyen wants parity between men and women in the EC. The issue today is that the Bulgarian political debate suffers from serious deficits and candidates for the European posts. In general, this is a serious test for the Bulgarian parties, and they usually do not pass it.