Bulgaria before the presidential elections: Maxim Behar's opinion

Maxim Behar on Bulgaria ON AIR: We Need to Be Pragmatic, Pragmatic, Pragmatic.

The presidential race is already underway, but many of the candidates continue to communicate using strategies from the past. In a conversation on Bulgaria ON AIR, PR expert Maxim Behar comments on GERB’s moves, Iliana Yotova’s advantage, the communication strategies of the other presidential candidates, and why the economy and Bulgaria’s international image should be at the heart of the presidential campaign.

Host: By tomorrow, GERB’s party structures will decide whether or not they will have their own presidential candidate. We will now analyse the presidential race and the moves of the largest opposition party with my guests, PR expert Maxim Behar and sociologist Yuli Pavlov. Hello to both of you.

Maxim Behar: Good morning.

Host: We are waiting to hear what GERB will decide. Boyko Borissov said that he is against having their own candidate, but he is leaving the decision to the party structures. Mr. Behar, would it be a failure for GERB if they do not have their own candidate?

Maxim Behar: For around 20 years now, whatever Boyko Borissov says within GERB is what happens. I do not expect a different decision.

They do not have many useful moves left because the presidential race is already underway, and it has been for quite some time. If GERB decides tomorrow to have a candidate, which I believe they should do, given that this is a party with a significant presence in the Bulgarian Parliament and in society, they need to find an “alien” candidate. I am putting “alien” in very large quotation marks, of course.

It has to be someone who will genuinely fight tooth and nail to win and who can make it to the second round. If they put forward a candidate simply to take part in the race, for example some provincial mayor, with all due respect to all provincial mayors, whether affiliated with them or not, then it seems to me that this will simply be another loss.
GERB has had only one president so far, Rosen Plevneliev. Personally, I thought he was a very decent and successful president, but for some reason they decided not to promote him for a second term.
Let us see what happens, but I am more inclined to think that they will not have a candidate. Without attaching any political meaning to my opinion, I work in public communications, I am not a political analyst,I believe that this, however, will not have a positive effect.

Host: Mr. Behar, what is the right strategy? A moment ago, you said that at this stage GERB does not have many useful moves left.

Maxim Behar: How can I be the one to say what the right strategy is for a political party that governed Bulgaria for more than 15 years? There are political leaders in that party who have travelled the world and made both difficult and easy decisions. Regardless of whether we evaluated them positively or negatively, we used to say to ourselves, “These people are governing.”
In my opinion, they themselves are very confused at the moment. Otherwise, there would be much clearer messages and people who would clearly stand out as potential candidates.

Host: So they have no one to nominate?

Maxim Behar: They want to nominate a winning candidate, and apparently they do not have one at the moment. That is my interpretation, without having any substantial data.

I assume they are currently trying to persuade four or five people, and probably all of them are refusing. These are the candidates whom I will once again put in quotation marks, the “aliens”, who are assumed to have sufficiently broad popularity and some chance of making it to the second round. Or, if they lose, at least to lose with dignity and for it to be clearly known that they represented GERB.

But GERB is currently an opposition party, and over the past few months we have not heard many clear messages or specific proposals showing that they have a clear programme for how they intend to oppose the government. That is the role of an opposition party, including in purely economic terms, rather than simply making general statements and remarks along the lines of “you were wrong, we were right.”

It is 2026. The entire world is completely different. Not just Bulgaria. We are all different and we think differently. We have completely different types of communication, artificial intelligence, and many other tools. You can no longer use the old methods.
When I look at the communication strategies of some of the political candidates, they seem terribly outdated to me.

Host: Where do you see that?

Maxim Behar: I have no idea who is behind them or who advises them. I am sure there are people following them around, filming videos of them, and then publishing them.

Host: On social media, the ones we see most often are those of Andrey Gyurov.

Maxim Behar: Maybe because you follow him, but there are other candidates who are also quite active on social media.
With some candidates, they are trying to run American-style campaigns, even though we are not in America. In Poland, for example, Rafał Trzaskowski, of whom I am a big fan, lost elections twice with an American-style campaign.

We are talking about Poland, a modern Central European country that has developed remarkably well over nearly the past 40 years. His campaign featured huge crowds, videos of him shaving in front of a mirror, running, and other similar things. And despite all that, he lost the elections.

Bulgaria needs a completely different type of campaign. It is difficult for me to give an exact formula in five or ten minutes, but it needs to be much more human, much more focused on the middle class, and above all on specific political messages and specific proposals, both domestic and international.

Host: You say that everyone was very late in announcing their candidates, but Iliana Yotova also announced her vice-presidential candidate, Kiril Valchev, relatively late.

Maxim Behar: She has her own cards to play and her own advantage. Of course, when an incumbent president is running, that has both advantages and disadvantages. She has to assess every move very carefully because she is a much more public figure, constantly under the spotlight and currently making decisions.
In my opinion, Iliana Yotova did it correctly. The only thing I found strange was that she announced her vice-presidential candidate in a television studio, in that manner, almost as though she were walking onto a concert stage.

Host: What do you think she was trying to achieve with that? How does it affect the institutional nature of the presidency?

Maxim Behar: I have no idea. Maybe that is how she decided to do it. Iliana Yotova is a very experienced person who performs brilliantly in front of the camera, as we have all known for many years. She probably has her own reasons.
But to me, it seemed rather un-institutional for the incumbent president to announce her vice-presidential candidate by “walking onto a concert stage” and simply saying that the person next to her, Kiril Valchev, would be her candidate.
Then he himself says, “God is my witness, I had absolutely no intention of running, but I accepted.” Somehow, that did not fit with the institutional character that Iliana Yotova represents.
But that is how she chose to do it. And she genuinely does have more cards in her hand at the moment.

Host: They say she is several laps ahead of the other candidates.

Maxim Behar: I do not know whether it is exactly several laps, but unquestionably she can afford more.
The question for me is different: why is no one putting the economy on the table?
It is true that the president does not have direct responsibility for the economy; that is the job of the executive branch. But a president can have a position and a vision.

Bulgaria is in crisis. All of Europe is in crisis. Bulgaria is experiencing its wonderful entry into the eurozone, but it is experiencing it in its own way through prices, wages, inflation, and everything else we are seeing.
So, if a presidential candidate wants to gain points, votes, or an advantage, I believe they need to present at least one page setting out their economic position, strategy, or perspective on what needs to happen.

Host: One more point, Mr. Behar. The presidential ticket of Iliana Yotova and Kiril Valchev brings together two journalists. How would you comment on that?

Maxim Behar: We journalists, because we are colleagues, have a very broad perspective on many issues.

Host: Will that be an advantage for them?

Maxim Behar: Yes, because the camera loves them.

Host: On the other side is the Gyurov-Kandev presidential ticket. What kind of trust can they attract, Mr. Behar?

Maxim Behar: You are tempting me to comment, even though I would rather not. Colleagues are probably behind their communications, but perhaps those people should watch a few more campaigns on television, YouTube, or elsewhere.

You cannot spend an entire week circulating a video of two candidates doing a photoshoot to the sound of “Bad Boys.”
I know Mr. Gyurov. I have not met Mr. Kandev. But regardless of who the candidates are, you cannot have the media space filled for an entire week primarily with a video of them doing a photoshoot.
What are they trying to show us with that?

Host: What are they trying to show us with that?

Maxim Behar: Well, the human side, that they are ordinary people.

Maxim Behar: The economy. Bill Clinton once said, “It’s the economy, stupid.” Even in America, which is a presidential republic, the president does not have that much direct influence over the economy.
In 2026, you cannot simply go around doing photoshoots and make that your main message. The most important thing is what you think.

We have a party with an absolute majority in Parliament. As a candidate, you need somehow to represent an alternative position and state your own view, whether that means agreeing with it or disagreeing with it.

We have not yet entered the actual campaign, but I hope that all candidates will have two main priorities or messages.
The first is how Bulgaria looks abroad. This is my favourite subject: Bulgaria’s branding, the promotion of Bulgaria, and the way our country is perceived. This also includes our positions regarding the war in Ukraine, the Middle East, and international issues, but above all the question of how we can present Bulgaria as a good place for investment and business.
The second is what needs to happen with our economy domestically. 

Nothing else. All political messages such as “left,” “right,” “conservatives,” and “liberals” should remain in the background. We need to be pragmatic, pragmatic, pragmatic.

Host: Mr. Behar, does it matter where GERB’s support goes if the party does not have its own candidate? Is it possible that Borissov will simply tell his voters to vote as they see fit?

Maxim Behar: The support may not go to anyone at all. He could say, “Do whatever you want,” and from that point onward everything would depend on the other candidates.

I still think that there is time until tomorrow for some “alien” candidate to say, “All right, I’ll take the risk. Let’s see what happens.”
But otherwise, I do not believe it.

Bulgaria is so divided, the political confrontation is so intense, and these people dislike one another so much that the words “unity,” “unification,” and “together” seem to have been erased from their political vocabulary.

I do not believe that the leader of a party like GERB, which is extremely leader-driven, will say, “Support Yotova,” “Support Gyurov,” or support some other candidate. He is more likely to leave them to decide for themselves.

But if he does that, it will be a major negative for GERB. I am returning to the beginning of our conversation.
I do not believe there is another political party in Europe that has been this strong and governed for so many years, yet only a week before the deadline would suddenly back away and say, “Do whatever you want.”

In practice, that would sound like: “We are not particularly interested in the presidential election.”
And given that the “prime minister-president” game has been going on for 15 years, to suddenly say, “What is the big deal? President, let the others fight for it, and let our people vote for whoever they want,” is not serious.

Host: Mr. Behar, a final sentence from you.

Maxim Behar: I will simply return to one word used by the respected sociologist Yuli Pavlov: an “opposing” party.
There should not be opposing parties and people who hate one another. It is true that there are different concepts. It is true that there is competition.

But what I want to say in conclusion is that we have a very interesting month and a half ahead of us. There is a clear candidate who is currently the frontrunner, but we do not know how things will develop.

Let us see whether there will be any surprises in this campaign.

Host: We will continue with the commentary. Thank you very much for this conversation.

You can watch the whole interview here: https://www.maximbehar.com/en/video/444/bulgaria-before-the-presidential-elections-maxim-behars-opinion