It is extremely important how the local elections will affect the ruling coalition and the governance of Bulgaria. This is what the political scientist Atanas Radev said in the Election Studio of Radio “Focus”. “It’s high time to stop using the word “assembly”, and really look at the elections, how they will affect the cabinet formula and the possible rotation. The results we see so far show , that the representation we have in our national parliament is repeated in some places, which means that there are really no significant changes in attitudes towards political parties and trust in them. So we could rather talk about remaining in the ruling majority.”
According to the political scientist, voter turnout is low because of what happened with the machine vote. In the second place, he put as the reason the absence of communication, of the work of the political parties with the citizens, which is essentially a conversation about the problems of the given area. “We should not just talk about clichéd messages about how much better our town will become, but rather talk about why this participation of citizens in the process is important and why it is important to vote. And from there, it also reflects on the management process, because a key element is therefore how citizens will be involved in the decision-making process at the local level.”
According to Atanas Radev, at the moment the leading element of the local elections is the competition between the two political entities that form the coalition that governs us at the national level. According to him, this does not lead to more contradictions, but makes for a better bond between the partners in the government: “Rather, it strengthens the coalition due to the fact that they also have representation at the local level. For its more serious regulation both in a coalition agreement and in some much more serious and in-depth conversation about governance.”
“The victory or loss in Sofia of one of the two political entities will largely lead to hand-wringing in terms of the power formula, in terms of the national government. Because if potentially Sofia is lost, it will allow the first political power to wring hands and to insist on its wider representation in the executive power,” Atanas Radev is categorical.
The local elections cannot affect in any way the relations between the president and the executive power, the political scientist also pointed out, these relations have been present since the very creation of the coalition and the clear distinction of the president from it, that this does not correspond to his political views. which is perfectly normal for a political scientist.
The most important thing, according to Atanas Radev, is that after these elections, the pluralization of local government and the building and achievement of consensuses at the local level should take place.
Veselka IVANOVA, Rositsa ANGELOVA
