Bulgaria or the collapse of the political rotation

Yes, things are getting more interesting in our part of Europe. The elections in Slovakia have caught the attention of practically the entire European Union, and in the meantime it is emerging that another election is likely to be held soon – early elections in Bulgaria. This is due to the collapse of the rotation system, which, unlike Poland, held the position of Prime Minister.

The two main parties in the government coalition in Sofia have split – similar to Israel a few years ago (where the rotating job of prime minister was offered by the left during a very short break under Benjamin “Bibi”). Netanyahu) – in terms of the duration of the prime minister’s term. The current Prime Minister, Professor. Nikolay Denkov was to be replaced by Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister, my dear friend from the European Parliament (elected three times: in 2009, 2014, 2019), and then European Commission Commissioner Maria Gabriel.

The leftist president in his second term, Air Force General Rumen Radev (last year we had an hour-and-a-half conversation at his residence in Sofia), last week appointed my former European Parliament colleague Gabriel as the new prime minister, giving her seven posts. days to make the change. However, the would-be prime minister resigned, meaning that, alongside the European Parliament elections, elections for the unicameral national parliament will be held in Bulgaria. For the seventh time in the past few years! In this way, Bulgaria broke the Israeli record for repeated elections and certainly entered the Guinness Book of Records!

This instability in the Bulgarian political system is what serves the country's president, the previously mentioned Radev, most favorably. The technocratic governments he creates eat from his hand, and when their leaders stop eating, they stop serving as prime ministers. This is what happened to Kirill Petkov. I also met him last year in Sofia, but when I arrived shortly afterwards, he was no longer in that position. Father Tvardovsky's farce: “Hurry to fall in love with Bulgarian prime ministers – they leave very quickly.”

Moreover, the President of Bulgaria, as head of state, often replaces the head of government at EU summits in Brussels. He is skeptical about the policy of sanctions against Russia, and I particularly remember his sentence from our conversation in Sofia: “Just as it is worth thinking about how to win a war, today it is also worth thinking about how to win peace.” “.

Ryszard Czarnecki is a Member of the European Parliament for PiS and former Vice-President of the European Parliament.