Tag: ITN

Bulgaria’s Election Spiral: Scratching Beneath the Surface

.Reading time 1 minute.

Where is Bulgaria headed after the fifth parliamentary election in the span of two years? My latest piece for New Eastern Europe titled “Bulgaria’s election spiral: the anatomy of disappointment” explains why the current political crisis can only be overcome if its roots are properly understood and addressed. In a country like Bulgaria, where appearances may often be deceiving, however, identifying these causes is not a straightforward task.

  • What does Boyko Borissov have to lose if his party is not part of government?
  • What strategies has Bulgaria’s status quo employed to sabotage the formation of a stable regular government in the past two years?
  • Who are the “poisonous lookalikes” on the Bulgarian political stage and what are they used for?
  • Why did President Rumen Radev drastically alter his views on the rule of law and Borissov?
  • How can we explain the rise of the pro-Russian “Revival” and to what extent is the threat to Euro-Atlanticism in Bulgaria real?
  • What do the latest voting patterns tell us?

You can read my full article here.

Will Bulgaria Finally Separate the Wheat from the Chaff on Its Political Stage?

.Reading time 15 minutes.

Earlier this month, I analyzed the deepening political crisis in Bulgaria in the context of the forthcoming parliamentary election in April 2023 for Res Publica, an academic blog edited by the Institute of Communication Studies of North Macedonia. In my commentary, I explain in details how an autocracy resists its dismantling and why an election spiral is not necessarily a bad thing given the circumstances. I republish my article “Bulgaria’s Deepening Political Crisis: An Opportunity to Separate the Wheat from the Chaff” with the permission of the editors:

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