Many voters in southern Bulgaria’s rocky Rhodope Mountains are sceptical that Sunday’s legislative election, the country’s sixth in two years, will create a secure administration capable of combating graft, inflation, and poverty.
The most recent election was declared in January, following three unsuccessful efforts by different political groups to form a working alliance following an indecisive vote in October.
Since widespread demonstrations in 2020, the nation has been ruled primarily by interim administrations chosen by President Rumen Radev.
The country’s goals to enter the eurozone in 2024 have already been delayed, and the country’s efforts to effectively use COVID-19 pandemic recovery funds and address increasing living costs could be hampered further.
“Politicians in parliament appear to be unable to understand each other,” said Andrey Kehayov, 29, whose parents own a sheep farm in Devin, a 7,000-person village north of the Greek frontier. “We need a normal administration, and they’re fighting over it… “This is foolishness.”
“Life has been difficult for the past year or two. “Inflation is quite high, fuel and energy prices are affecting us, and animal feed has tripled in price,” said Kehayov, a young member of the ethnic Turkish MRF party.
With costs rising across Europe, consumer expenses in Bulgaria rose by 16% in February.
According to a Market Links survey, the election on Sunday will be a tight one. Earlier this week, the newly formed alliance of the pro-Western We Continue the Change (PP) party and the reforming Democratic Bulgaria (DB) party was polling at 23.7%, while the GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and its tiny Union of Democratic Forces (SDS) ally was polling at 22.3%.
Kehayov’s MRF party was scoring at around 13.6%, while the anti-euro group, Pro-Russian Revival, was at 11.4%.
There is a feeling of voter stasis throughout Bulgaria, with participation anticipated to be very low on Sunday, highlighting the growing disenchantment with rampant corruption and ineffective political infighting in the EU’s lowest member country.
“It’s good for people to vote, but I don’t see any politicians who want to change anything in this country right now,” Andrey’s mother, Mariana Kehayova, said.
