Assoc. Petar Cholakov before FACTS: This is the biggest irony - Borisov turned out to be more stable than Dogan

Who will be who after the next elections, which are on October 27. And what are the chances for a cabinet after we have weakened DPS and BSP… Political scientist Assoc. Petar Cholakov spoke to FAKTI on the subject.

- Assoc. Cholakov, are there any interesting elections given that the DPS and the BSP are in a rather shaky and weak situation…
- I don't know if they will be interesting, but in any case surprises are possible. Just a parliament with a DPS that has split will be different. It is clear that the DPS in the next parliament will not be what we are used to. Until now, we have not had such a situation. We know what happened with the DOST project and the story surrounding Lutvi Mestan, but the case of Peevski is radically different. I would even say that he is radically different. I will allow myself to use such a slightly bombastic comparison with dentistry – when sage is extracted. Extracting an ordinary tooth is like changing ordinary chairmen in the DPS - like Mestan, like Kara dai. While the case of Peevski is like a sage who has taken hold very firmly in the bone. Of course

Here Ahmed Dogan has to enter the role of the dentist, but he has to perform an operation on himself.

Dogan, in a sense, is the architect of the DPS construction. Well, this operation is very complicated, and that's why I tease with the “wisdom“ tooth. Otherwise, Peevski can hardly be called a source of wisdom, right? Just as wisdom teeth have nothing to do with human wisdom. So the situation is very special in DPS. From a youth perspective, perhaps if one wants to be interesting and bet on Peevski or Dogan as the future development of DPS, it is more possible to bet on Peevski. Dogan is a very experienced person, a very authoritative person in the DPS itself. But there are no irreplaceable people. In fact, Peevski - more or less, remains an external factor in this DPS construction. This, in fact, is perhaps his main problem.

- From a phenomenon to a complete schism. And that within just a few months…
- No one expected it. I also did not think that there would be such dramas in DPS. When this idea was announced with the two co-presidents, I said that it was very risky, because if things did not move there, it would lead to tension not only in the DPS, but also in the whole country. It is clear that Bulgaria is a multi-ethnic country. We somehow forget that. There are about 13% of the population who are Turks, Pomaks, Roma – if we are based on the official statistics (b.r. - 8.4% Turks, 4.4% Roma).
The only way these people got representation was through DPS. There are some of them scattered in other parties, but they are very few. Otherwise, what is the DPS model with a few sentences. A person who is an agent of State Security - in the person of Ahmed Dogan - was entrusted with this construction with the DPS party. Dogan was installed in the DPS from the top of the communist security services because he had to keep this ethnic group under control so that it would not become a Yugoslav scenario in Bulgaria.

In return, he was promised to do as he pleased - generally on a car and bessi basis.

Whether he will be an honorary chairman, whether he will be a creator, leader, etc. does not matter. And that's why, roughly speaking, that's how things turned out there – because they do what they want and think is good. In fact, that's why we're now looking at what's going on in this DPS corporation. And if it shakes, not only Dogan's chair can shake, but the whole country can also shake. That is why it is very dangerous to have two DPS. It goes without saying that DPS supporters will wonder how they will be represented, and certainly some of them will feel cheated. And if inside this ethnic group some fermentation starts… The situation is extremely delicate and it goes much further outside the framework of the Bulgarian national interest than if we were talking only about a head-on collision between two people to find out who will have a stronger head - Dogan or Peevski.

- We also see something more characteristic from time to time, which is ebb and flow. This is the banter between Delyan Peevski and President Rumen Radev. And through this clash is Delyan Peevski trying to position himself in the public space as a factor…
- President Radev is the figure with the highest rating. But in the person of Peevski we see a politician who is clearly trying to present himself as different from the president and his oppositions and values especially regarding the war in Ukraine, Russia and so on. This is a good way for Peevski to seek some kind of legitimation, but not so much in domestic politics as in foreign politics. With these positions that Peevski makes to Radev, he aims to show that he is very loyal to NATO and Euro-Atlantic values. Some time ago, people from the circle around Peevski distributed a summary of how many bills Peevski was involved in. This was in response to a question from an American journalist. Peevski's publicists released a list of how many legislative projects he initiated. And the goal was to make nice eyes in front of the Euro-Atlantic partners. There is another interesting thing here. Because there is such a thesis that Dogan is the man of the KGB in Bulgaria, and there was information about Peevski from the Turkish services that he was involved in cigarette smuggling and had connections with Russian oligarchs. There were such publications and investigations. And what comes out - both the one and the other are related to Euro-Atlantic values.

- In the background of all that is happening, can we expect a cabinet to be formed. We have a weak BSP, we have DPS in two, we have PP-DB, which barely survived in a coalition, and GERB, ITN and “Vazrazhdane” they look from the side…
- GERB are now in the best position. At GERB, I don't know what needs to be done to shake the power of the leader Boyko Borisov. In fact, this is the biggest irony - Borisov turned out to be more stable than Dogan. I don't know if anyone expected this. This, figuratively speaking, is indeed a seal of longevity. For Borisov, this is a unique case that he can frame. With GERD, things don't look worrisome in any way. The problem with them is that they have no one to make friends with to make a cabinet. A weaker Peevski or a weaker Dogan, because there they will wait until the last moment to see who will prevail, how he will help them.

Otherwise, when one prevails, the GERBs will be the first to hug him, because they have to do alush-verish.

This is clear, they will become and be friends first. But the point here is that with a divided and weak DPS – only with Dogan or only with Peevski, the arithmetic for a majority in the parliament will not be enough for them. There must be a third. At the moment, I don't see PP-DB burning with the desire to make “assembly 2”. So, in my opinion, a regular government will be very difficult to form in this situation. After the vote, the parliament will be completely torn apart. If we have two wings in the BSP. The party is also in "perestroika", because inside the hive it is not known whether we will have a "queen mother" again, or we will have a new "king".