According to the chairman of the BIA - Dobrich, the election results are worrying
How will you comment on the election results?
The results are not unexpected and, at the same time, they are very worrying because they do not provide a good management perspective. And for business it is of key importance to have a stable and predictable management, with a long-term perspective and a clear policy. The current composition of the National Assembly does not imply the formation of a stable government. If it comes to the formation of a government at all, it will be a coalition, very likely the coalition will be on an unprincipled basis, without clear political intentions, including in the field of economic, financial and social spheres. All this, against the background of existing and deepening crises, makes me rather pessimistic. Most likely, the political roulette will continue to spin for a long time, and this is not a good prospect.
Why is voter turnout so low once again?
The short answer is "because people got tired of elections". The longer answer has to do with our poorly structured political system—with clear subjects on the left, right, and center. In Bulgaria, there is no stable right, there is no stable left, and political formations with a clientelistic, conjunctural, temporary nature prevail. In addition, the feeling of influences of foreign geopolitical interests is superimposed. All this alienates the voters and makes them feel as if nothing depends on them. And last but not least, the political formations never managed to formulate clear messages aimed at the specific problems of the specific social groups. Throughout the campaign, we were bombarded with populism and geopolitics, but no one dared to say how, with what concrete actions, he intends to manage the crises and, what's more, to lead our society out of the crises, to use the crises as an opportunity for development. Moreover, they all bet on public opposition – political action and talk have divided our society to the extreme, which is the greatest sin of politicians.
What are the most urgent problems facing the business?
There is no doubt that the most difficult and pressing problem is energy. Unlike the population, which is still protected from the price shock, businesses are really languishing under the pressure of high electricity and gas prices. The bigger problem is the lack of predictability. We do not know today what the price of electricity will be tomorrow, we do not know if there will be compensations, for how long and in what amounts. We don't know when the market will calm down, so let's stop talking about compensation altogether. We do not know if we will have the necessary quantities of natural gas and at what price it will be. All these unknowns force businesses to calculate their higher costs up front on final output, and this pumps up inflation and eats away at incomes.
Another serious problem is a degraded or interrupted supply chain. There is no business at the moment that does not complain about problems with the supply of basic raw materials. There are no quantities, deliveries are slow, prices are rising with each subsequent delivery... And worst of all, there is no light at the end of the tunnel.
Otherwise, in the longer term, the problems related to the investment environment, the lack of electronic government, the need to limit regulatory regimes, reforms in public systems - education, health care, social security, etc. - continue to be on the agenda.
It is extremely important, especially in this crisis period, to preserve the existing tax system and that the new rulers do not think about changes in this area, because this would be another blow to our economic development and business environment.
And let's speculate a little - Expectations when forming a regular government? And perspective-an office again?
It is clear that we will not be left without a government - regular or official, we will have a government. The question is what will be the quality of this government, what will be its actions, will it be able to lead us out of the multi-layered crises, how, in what time frame will it do it. There are too many question marks and it is difficult to make any predictions as of today. I will repeat again - it is important for business to have stability and predictability. We do not want them to help us - we want them not to prevent us from working in a peaceful environment, earning our money, supporting our workers and ensuring through our taxes the prosperity of the state. There is no business that relies on aid, but there is also no business that could indefinitely withstand economic experiments, as they have subjected us to in the last 2-3 years.
