The voting of Bulgarians living abroad continue to be angry and protesting, and its message still remains "Change Bulgaria!". This is what sociologist from the Gallup International agency Parvan Simeonov noted in his commentary on the election results abroad. Unlike before, however, now the political scene lacks a new big project to captivate the voters, as it happened with the party of TV showman Slavi Trifonov, but the hope for something new and different has not completely faded in the souls of the voters abroad and it is not surprising:
"In order to choose life abroad, people saw more opportunities for themselves and their families there than in their own country. The fact that the results of "We Continue the Change", which still remain new in the eyes of quite a few voters abroad and in the country, are not bad is another proof in this direction."
Simeonov also feels a fair dose of optimism in the possibility of the gradual return of the bipolar model in Bulgarian politics, due to the change of generations.
"We have the chance to achieve a relatively comprehensive political map of the country, in which GERB stands on one side as a center-right party, and on the other side we have "We Continue the Change" as a center-left party. Democratic Bulgaria and the Bulgarian Socialist Party may remain in the wings. This is perhaps an optimistic scenario for the country, but beyond it I don't see any other possibility specifically here and now," predicts Parvan Simeonov and added:
"Unlike now, when it is at a dead end, in the previous cases in Bulgaria there was a clear public energy to change the model. This time, however, the agenda is not "a change against the status quo" but it is related to war, high prices, etc., so it is not clear what type of government the voter has ordered. On the other hand, we see that the politicians do not seem to be burning with the desire to govern, which gives rise to a double withdrawal - the people are reluctant to vote, and the politicians are reluctant to govern."
The national census requires the redrawing of the political map of Bulgaria
Talking to Radio Bulgaria, Parvan Simeonov commented on the changes that follow from the published data on the population census conducted by the National Statistical Institute in 2021. According to them, a little over 6.5 million people currently live in Bulgaria and serious depopulation is observed in some regions of Bulgaria.
The biggest problem is not so much related to the electoral lists, where there are quite a few Bulgarians who live abroad, but to the imbalances in the weight of the votes for the people's representatives in the individual electoral districts in the country,the sociologist points out:
"It turned out that, according to the new census, Sofia weighs much more, which means that more must be added to the existing mandates. Such a thing, however, creates a problem, which consists in the fact that voting in the capital is quite different than in the country. A pro-Western younger and liberal generation that votes differently is developing its own agenda here. And if Sofia receives more weight, this will lead to a greater weight of their votes on the electoral map of Bulgaria. This map, however, must reflect the realities so that one vote has equal weight everywhere."
However, it is hardly realistic to expect that the new National Assembly will be able to deal with the redrawing of the electoral map in the country.
"The big rifts that have occurred between the parties prevent them from reaching any kind of consensus. How to reshape the electoral map so that everyone will start looking for their own interest?”, asks Parvan Simeonov rhetorically. “I have the feeling that with the decrease in voter turnout the chances for such a thing are decreasing more and more," the sociologist concludes.
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