Bulgarian Business Set to Infiltrate Local Politics

Plovdiv mayor and prominent businessman Slavcho Atanasov. Photo by BGNES

Ever more businessmen are expressing their desires to run for mayors of Bulgarian towns and cities, as municipal elections loom in the fall, reports the daily Dnevnik.

While there has been a strong symbiosis between the local governments and businesses over the years, Dnevnik reports a desire for even stronger links by directly electing businessmen for key positions.

The attraction reportedly comes from both directions – businessmen and political parties – with businessmen looking for a more direct influence in politics, and parties looking for attractive candidates.

On their part, economically embattled voters view that development as a potential promise for the betterment of their region.

On the other hand, commentators have seen that tendency as negative, as they have argued it lays preconditions for a so-called “dependency voting,” in which one votes based on economic dependency on a given business, rather than conscious preference for a political cause or program.

All four major parties in Bulgaria – ruling center-right GERB, opposition Bulgarian Socialist Party and Movement of Rights and Freedoms, and nationalists Ataka – are seriously considering the option to support local businessmen as their candidates across the country.

Another interesting tendency is the development of ad hoc local coalitions between parties, influenced by the local balance of party support and irrespective of the party alignments at the central level of government in Sofia.

For instance Dobrich mayor Detelina Nikolova is a contested object of support for both GERB and the Socialists, who regret not electing her as their candidate back in 2007.

Other places, such as Blagoevgrad are set for a more standard GERB – BSP contest though.

For Plovdiv, the main contest is expected to be by independent incumbent Slavcho Atanasov, himself a prominent businessman. Atanasov has his own VMRO-NIE party and may be supported by others, and Ilko Nikolov, erected by the rightist Blue Coalition.

Capital Sofia is also set for a traditional contest among a GERB representative, most likely incumbent Yordanka Fandakova, Socialist Georgi Kadiev and the Blue Coalition’s Proshko Proshkov.

Dnevnik also reports that some parties might choose as a strategy electing as candidates MPs who are popular with their constituents, to boost local votes.

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