Official data from the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) show that there are about 4 000 Bulgarian citizens residing in Poland. Most of them live in the capital Warsaw. Not a few are living in one of the oldest and most beautiful European cities - Krakow. It is in these two places that polling stations are open for voting today in Poland.

Election day in Krakow is going on calmly and normally, Katerina Ignatova, secretary of the polling station staff, told Radio Bulgaria. As of 13:00 Bulgarian time, 27 Bulgarians had exercised their right to vote.

"Interestingly, we have people who have travelled long distances to get to the polling station in Krakow. There are many young first-time voters, and the thing that impressed me today is the responsibility that everyone is showing. People are still voting with hope."

Katerina, like many Bulgarians abroad, admits that she is tired of the many early votes, and in order to do something repeatedly, one has to see the point in it. The Bulgarians who are civic-minded and who travel for hours to drop their ballot in the ballot box are her motivation and sense of purpose for participating in almost all the Bulgarian elections held in Poland in the last five years.

"I am also involved as a volunteer with the Bulgarian school in Krakow and help the children not to lose touch with their roots, which I think is a way of creating and nurturing a community away from home. It's just that elections abroad are a very different experience to what they are in Bulgaria. For us, they are a way for people to feel closer to home on that day more than any other day. That motivates me and I hope my countrymen are not tired, as we are not, and vote." 

The Bulgarian community in Krakow is close-knit, young and active, Katerina is convinced.

And although for them, the Bulgarians abroad, the elections are a kind of celebration and an opportunity to see each other, today everyone in Krakow wishes not to see each other in the next four years on this occasion.

"The situation in the world is uncertain and we must all be committed. Just as voters are responsible today, politicians must be responsible in their decisions tomorrow. People everywhere are living harder now than they were a year or two ago. I see this because it is the same in Poland and it is very important that everyone is responsible in their actions so that things happen in the best possible way."

Text: Vesela Krasteva

Photos: Pixabay, personal archive

English version: Elizabeth Radkova