Viewers tuning in to a recent episode of Panorama, a top political discussion program on Bulgarian state-run TV, who hoped to hear candidates voice their views on the serious issues facing the nation ahead of another snap election on April 2, were in for disappointment.
Instead of debate, they heard a candidate with a rap sheet -- including convictions for assault and robbery -- urge co-panelists to "slap" another participant in the debate.
Those comments were made by Boyan Rasate, leader of the far-right, nationalist Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy party, which has never won a single seat in any election.
Rasate was not the only extremist on the March 12 panel, although more mainstream candidates opted out, perhaps wary of what could transpire. Also on the program that night was Ventsislav Angelov, one of Bulgaria's most notorious anti-vaxxers and a leader of the Truth and Only The Truth, another far-right party that operates largely in obscurity.
Angelov used his airtime to spout off on sundry conspiracy theories and boast of his role in a doubtful deal to secure cheap gas from Russia before closing with a warning that Bulgarian troops would soon be sent to fight in Ukraine against invading Russian troops.
What critics said resembled more debacle than debate comes as Bulgaria continues to be gripped by a grim political reality: The EU's poorest member, still struggling to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic, is facing another snap parliamentary poll on April 2, the fifth such vote in two years.
Raising The Stakes
Hopes for reform in the corruption-plagued nation were largely dashed in June 2022, when the pro-Western government of Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov fell in a no-confidence vote in parliament after only six months in power.
On February 2, President Rumen Radev dissolved parliament and announced the date for the April snap poll after six attempts to form a government had failed since last July. The chances that this poll could end the political stalemate could be low. An Alpha Research survey published on March 1 found that Petkov's We Continue The Change party and its coalition partners were leading with about 26.4 percent, just one percentage point ahead of the GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov and its coalition partner, the Union of Democratic Forces.
Bulgarian Prime Minister Kiril Petkov, leader of the We Continue The Change party, addresses the media outside a polling station in Sofia on October 2, 2022.
With the stakes high, would-be voters turning to Bulgarian National Television (BNT) and Bulgarian National Radio (BNR) -- both state-funded media behemoths -- are being ill served, critics and experts have cautioned.
Bulgaria has long had a reputation as one of southeastern Europe's worst defenders of media freedoms. It ranked 91st out of 180 countries in Reporters Without Borders' 2022 World Press Freedom Index, a jump of 21 spots from the previous ranking.
Amid complaints from the public, the Central Election Commission has sprung into action, dishing out fines to candidates who call for violence, perform Nazi salutes, or other violations.
Even the head of BNT, Emil Koshlukov, admitted publicly that the preelection debates were largely nothing more than "parody," and even apologized to viewers and TV presenters for being forced to listen to "outright nonsense."
The inclusion of Rasate and Angelov -- also known by his street name of Chicago -- in the nationally televised preelection debates has prompted many Bulgarians to ask what has become of their country's political culture. Why was state-run media inviting candidates who, in some cases, registered less than 0.1 percent support, if public opinion polls are to be believed?
Concerns were first raised ahead of the October 2022 snap poll when Dimitar Mitev, a candidate for the Bulgarian Social Democracy – Euroleft party, and Svetlio Vitkov, leader of the populist People's Voice party, almost came to blows on BNT.
'Mental Health Of The Nation'
Opening the doors of state-run media to all politicians dates back to early 2021, when deputies of the populist There Is Such A People (ITN) party, founded by Slavi Trifonov, a TV host and singer, advocated -- and succeeded in passing -- changes to the country's election laws.
Specifically, the party called for changes to Article 189 of the election law, inserting language that all registered parties "have the right to equal participation" in campaign coverage by BNT and BNR.
Applying and interpreting the law has largely been left to the two main state-funded media giants, BNR and BNT, which have negotiated with political parties to hammer out specific formats and even which party gets to speak first. As a result, fringe and extremist parties have had perhaps the greatest access to the public airwaves ever.
How fringe? In the last parliamentary election in October, Angelov's Truth And Only The Truth party secured exactly 2,522 votes, or about 0.1 percent of the overall tally. It was even worse for Rasate's Bulgarian National Union – New Democracy, which won a total of 1,849 votes, or 0.07 percent of the nationwide count.
Amid the din of the extremist candidates' outlandish remarks and behavior, the election law changes that made it possible were criticized by Koshlukov, the general director of BNT.
In a Facebook post on March 18, Koshlukov called for the "ill-conceived" amendments to be rescinded and announced the BNT would submit such a proposal for that to parliament.
"The election campaign in the media should not damage the mental health of the nation," Koshlukov wrote in his post, which followed the March 18 Panorama program featuring Angelov and Rasate.
A voter casts his ballot at a polling station during the country's parliamentary elections in Sofia on October 2, 2022.
Milen Mitev, the general director of BNR, told RFE/RL's Bulgarian Service that more established parties are refusing to take part in debates involving extremists.
"Instead of helping voters educate themselves, BNR and BNT de facto mislead them by creating a false impression about the popularity of radical ideas and messages," Mitev told RFE/RL.
'What Does Quality Mean?'
The grim assessment of the preelection landscape in Bulgaria is also shared by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which regularly sends monitors to observe elections, including in Bulgaria.
In a report in late 2022, the OSCE wrote that legal provisions requiring "equal participation" of all political parties on election lists had a negative effect. In particular, the OSCE said it led to "a reduction in the competitiveness of public media," and did not contribute to "the ability of the voter to make an informed choice."
Iva Miteva was one of the lawmakers voting in favor of the changes in April 2021, when she was a member of the ITN party. (In 2023, she left the party and, along with several other former members, founded the Together party.)
Despite voting in favor of opening up access on state-run media to all candidates, neither ITN nor Together participated in any of the Panorama election debates this month.
Asked why, Miteva told RFE/RL that she didn't have time due to travel commitments linked to campaigning.
"We refuse because we travel. Me and [Lyubomir] Karimanski (another Together party leader) and other colleagues are always somewhere. I haven't stopped. We go from city to city and we have too little time," said Miteva.
Despite criticism and calls to repeal the changes to the election law that allowed in extremist candidates, Miteva defended the legislation. "These people are allowed to participate in the elections, right? What does quality mean? The voters will judge the quality. Someone may even like this behavior," Miteva said.