Szkvarek: Bulgaria is catching up with the Western political trends

Only one part of the Bulgarian young society is politically engaged. In the political spectrum this is the part of the urban-liberal segment, said historian and political analyst Kristian Szkvarek in the morning block of BGNES. He added that this is evident with the elections over the last few years, people like Kiril Petkov and Asen Vasilev represent this younger generation. For example, they are much younger than Ivan Kostov. The rest of the main political spheres in Bulgaria do not have a change of generation yet, this is only visible with the liberals.

"A new generation of pro-Western youth is emerging in Sofia. They are different from their pro-Western parents who belong to the old generation, which is mainly characterized with anti-communism", he said.

Szkvarek made it clear that this happens mostly because some of the old politicians "retire". This leaves a vacancy that is occupied by the young.

"New 'strong players' are emerging in only a few places. Kostadin Kostadinov with the nationalist pro-Russian sphere, and Asen Vasilev and Kiril Petkov with the liberals."

"Demography plays an important role, it's the fate of a nation. It also plays an important role for the political spectrum. Bulgaria is a very ageing country, and this greatly reduces the chance that a historical figure will emerge from the coming generations," said Szkvarek.

He also commented on the shift between the right-left opposition in Bulgaria.

"There is a change in Bulgaria between the old right-left and east-west. There is a new opposition between conservatism and liberalism. You can see how anything immediately divides parties and society on the basis of whether it's pro-European or Eurosceptic, progressive or conservative...That's the main boundary, if you're more progressive you're far left and if you're more conservative you're far right."

"Bulgaria is catching up with the trends that have already occurred in the west, the division in politics being based primarily between progressivism and conservatism," said Szkvarek. /BGNES