00:00Is disinformation a threat to the Bulgarian elections?
00:08Bulgaria's snap parliamentary elections are scheduled for the 19th of April
00:12and will mark the country's 8th election in five years.
00:16The country's former president, Ruman Radev, from the Progressive Bulgaria Party,
00:20who has adopted a Eurosceptic and pro-Kremlin stance, is leading in the polls.
00:25His main opponent is the veteran centre-right leader, Boiko Borisov.
00:29Bulgaria joined the Eurozone this January,
00:32which had really opened the gates for a lot of disinformation narratives.
00:38So often the rationale of these narratives is that because we are in the Eurozone,
00:43the energy crisis is even worse and we are paying even more money.
00:47To fight off foreign interference threats,
00:50Bulgaria's government has asked Europe's diplomatic service for help,
00:53activating the rapid response system under the DSA.
00:56Bulgaria is actually not a typical case when we are talking about disinformation.
01:00It also combines the prolonged political instability, the weak regulators,
01:05and actually low public trust with a really strong domestic network
01:09that spreads and amplifies this type of disinformation.
01:12According to the Center for the Study of Democracy,
01:15the Pravda network, which works to spread pro-Russian news,
01:18targets Bulgaria disproportionately.
01:20The organisation tracked nearly 6,000 pro-Kremlin articles published in Bulgarian every month,
01:26a significant higher per capita intensity of Pravda content compared to most other European nations.
01:32Bulgarian outlets such as Pogled Info also work to disseminate content from sanctioned Russian entities
01:38and Chinese state-controlled sources.
01:40These narratives have favoured Radev's politics,
01:43who recently claimed that his pro-EU rivals were seeking to influence the election outcome,
01:48citing the an old 2024 Romanian presidential elections.
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