The protests in Bulgaria in recent weeks reveal three main political narratives that are fighting for dominance, and the government's resignation provides opportunities for a regrouping of forces before the upcoming elections. This was stated by Assoc. Prof. Tatyana Burudzhieva from the sociological agency "Gallup" in the program "Metronome" on Radio Focus.
"So far, the protests have told us three things. The PP spoke from the very beginning, rather emphasizing the budget, economic policy with the vote of no confidence. And now we see that this narrative has developed in a very clear analogy with the 1997 protests. Whether this will lead to a concentration of votes in only one direction, I I doubt it," Burudzhieva commented.
She pointed to the second narrative of the DB: "Their spokesmen, their politicians somehow take us back to 1990, they immediately began to insist on the civil nature of the protest, not so much the economic one."
The third is by President Rumen Radev: "This is more of a remake of the coming of the Tsar. We see that he announced that he would surprise us a lot."
After Borisov's resignation, Burudzhieva noted a fourth narrative: "Since Borisov resigned, there has already been a fourth narrative, and this is the GERB narrative and his, which I assume is still developing. With everything that fails to happen well in Bulgaria, Borisov will return us to his thesis: "When I was Prime Minister or when I am Prime Minister, such things do not happen“."
On the question of whose protests, Burudzhieva emphasized: "The protest was indeed organized mainly around the interests of a part of Bulgarian big business. But the protests are organized, and the citizens, the vast majority of them, are there spontaneously. But the protests are also not only of Generation Z. These are not protests of the lost generation, the poor generation, these are Gen Z protests all over the world."
"This is really an opportunity to get out of this government with minimal damage. The moment GERB resigned, GERB is practically out of these scenarios," Assoc. Prof. Burudzhieva believes.
She warned of risks of escalation of tension.
As for President Radev, she indicated that it is not known when he will enter the political arena, but he has his own chances.
"The warning is that there is no particular concern for what we want as citizens and our interests. Rather, the interests of the parties regarding power dominate political decisions and political actions", Burudzhieva summarized the warnings of the events so far.