MP Wannabes promise cheap electricity, gas, high pensions, salaries, maternity leave compensations, high-tech system of healthcare and a blossoming industry… However, they don’t say where the money for all this will come from.

Candidates for the parliament promise a lot, along with all we’ve heard before: criticism for the political enemy, concern about the poor ones etc. Most of those promises cannot be kept. The campaign platforms of the different parties are not that important, as everyone tells lies, but here are some of the promises:

Liberalization in all sectors: from the energy one, through healthcare to education. Voters are tempted with two baits: free retrofitting of panel apartment buildings and energy benefits for 500,000 Bulgarians. Both cannot solve any fundamental problem of the society, but sound tempting. The e-government, never created so far, is among the priorities once again. A progressive income tax is proposed by another party, a third one promises stimuli for Bulgarian goods and producers, as well as access to electricity for all Bulgarians, even in the remotest villages. Furthermore – free tablets for any student, returning of mandatory military service, implementation of educational background for the purposes of voting and also a mandatory vote… Thorough reforms in the spheres of justice, security, energy, public administration, education etc. are also promised. Citizens will enjoy e-services, businessmen will praise with electronic public procurements…

Political psychologist Antoaneta Hristova, director of the Institute for Population and Human Studies with the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences comments these promises and gives explanations on the vague difference between the leftist and rightist ones:

“These promises sound the way these wishes are set in the soul and mind of the average Bulgarian. We need all this, since things haven’t happened well in Bulgaria for so many years of transition and in all the main spheres of public development. These promises’ conception responds to the actual needs of the state. What’s behind them is another story. Any promise of that kind needs first of all a respected person to stand behind it and guarantee with biography that what’s been said will be implemented. Next, a political party is needed – its ideology will provide the algorithm for keeping that promise. For instance, the leftist party can say that salaries can go up via redistribution and rising of taxes. At the same time the rightist party will promise reducing of taxes, thus stimulating business. Both ideologies may collide this way and persuade us via their representatives whether they are lying or not. Over these transition years no one has taught us yet what this ideological thinking is. It can give options for actions once the promises are made. Today in Bulgaria there is no voters’ understanding of ideologies. Politicians themselves avoid talking in terms of the principles of conservatism and liberalism. They try to be pragmatic and promise in a PR manner. Yes, they aim at all our problems. We need their solutions, but those are not serious and viable, while being torn apart from their basics, the respective principles and paths, which lead to their goals. That is why those look like populism. No one works on the ideological, i.e. the valuable and economic aspect of the promise, no one explains how exactly this thing will happen. Why do our politicians behave like that? It’s because it is easier this way, requiring less expertise. Systematic efforts for gathering of experts, working for the respective political force are necessary, in order for the trust of the voter to be obtained, as far as their promises are concerned,” political psychologist Antoaneta Hristova says in conclusion.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev