One Year, Three Elections

Bulgarians will elect both the president and the parliament in less than two weeks. Incumbent President Rumen Radev’s chances of re-election remain favorable while opinion polls show that the new and small centrist party (‘We Continue the Change’) led by the ministers of economy and finance from the caretaker government is the second most popular behind Boyko Borissov’s GERB party. Romanian Prime Minister Florin Cîțu’s government ousted by a motion of no confidence over inefficient spending of EU recovery funds and a dire pandemic situation at home; previous minister of defense chosen as the caretaker, but he too is unlikely to survive yet another vote of no confidence. This makes president Klaus Iohannis the only stable element in Romanian politics. Poland meanwhile refuses to pay-up fines imposed by the ECJ, making ambiguous promises to reform its judiciary. Slovakia’s energy independence potentially under threat: Hungarian state-owned company is a front-running bidder for minority shares in what is the country's second-largest energy producer.  Weronika Grzebalska, sociologist and analyst at Institute of Political Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, talks to Visegrad Insight about the proposed bill to reform Polish defense forces and how the opposition can capitalize on non-military defense issues ignored by the ruling PiS party.