pre-election programmes

The study evaluates to what degree of importance and through what specific political alternatives the need of serious reforms and changes into Bulgarian social policy was addressed and articulated during the two campaigns for the parliamentary elections in 2021. The focus on the “social dimension“ in the pre-election debate is more than grounded, because of the lasting existence of considerable social inequalities and problems which turned to be a chronicle diseases in the Bulgarian development. The text tries to evaluate the “social dimension” of the parliamentary election through the prism of the existing social problems in the country. That is because the answers (reform plans and declared political measures) presented by the different political parties and coalitions which took part into the elections are analyzed with regard to the existing social problems. By following this approach, the study is organized upon three main themes. The first section gives a systematized description of the leading social challenges faced by the Bulgarian population and of the main problems in the functioning of the country’s social policy. The second section is an attempt of evaluation not only of the importance of the social problematic into the elections debate and parties programmes. It also analyses the character and possible impact of the proposed political alternatives and solutions which are supposed to address the social problems in Bulgaria.