Presidential election in Bulgaria
In Bulgaria the Socialist candidate Rumen Radev has won the first round of the presidential election, securing 25 percent of the vote. Tsetska Tsacheva, the candidate of ruling party Gerb lagged behind with roughly 22 percent. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had said prior to the vote that he and his cabinet would resign if the opposition candidate won, but he has now announced that he will wait for the result of the runoff vote. The press comments on Borisov's back-pedalling.
Borisov overestimated himself
Did Prime Minister Boyko Borisov really believe that his threat to resign would influence the Bulgarians? Dnevnik asks incredulously:
“Borisov is acting like someone who wants to set up an authoritarian regime. But unlike Erdoğan, Putin or Orbán, for example, he lacks the necessary resources. His attempts to imitate these leaders can only land him on thin ice ultimately bring about his demise. He should know his people better, or at least be familiar with Bulgaria's recent political history, which shows that the Bulgarians always vote against the establishment. Anyone who becomes part of the establishment runs the risk of antagonising voters. What happened in the US with Trump and in Britain with the Brexit is perfectly normal voting behaviour in Bulgaria.”
New election inevitable
Whether Borisov keeps his word and resigns or not doesn't really matter anymore, e-vestnik writes:
“Borisov is on the way down, and not just since the presidential election. … He promised to resign if Radev won the runoff, and it's logical that he will. The incumbent president Rosen Plevneliev would then set up a caretaker government, the third in a row. At the end of January early parliamentary elections would take place. In the unlikely event that Tsacheva wins, the government's problems won't go away. This will only fan the people's discontent, which in the end would also lead to a new election.”