Vladimir Mitev, the co-founder of Cross-Border Talks, answers Małgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat's questions about another upcoming Bulgarian snap elections, legacy of the coalition government that ceased to exist and composition of the new caretaker government announced on 5 April. Vladimir Mitev points out to possible internal and external factors that contributed to the break up of the fragile coalition between GERB and We Continue the Change & Democratic Bulgaria, therefore, a coalition of a party constantly accused for corruption and two parties who swore to fight corruption. He underlines the need of taking into consideration not what someone announces to do in Bulgaria, but what is actually done by respective parties. In this light, the anti-corruption successes of parties who claimed to fight corruption seem very bleak. Vladimir also shares a more general reflection on how Bulgarian political life is dominated by those who have business, and how parties are not living entities with internal discussions, but leader-type parties aiming at turning power into money (and the other way round). The real change, he concludes, could be only done through people, for and by people with genuine agency.

Change in Bulgaria will come not from hollow political parties, but from people with agency

Cross-Border Talks