Bulgarian diplomacy misses serious opportunities to advance its interests in the USA.
Kamala Harris has put Donald Trump's staff in an awkward position and has the upper hand. The division in American society is a major factor in the US election. Bulgaria sleeps its interests in Washington, and at the same time, Belgrade pursues a proactive policy.
This was stated in an interview for BGNES by journalist Yasen Darakov, a longtime correspondent in the United States.
We talk with him about the chances of the two presidential candidates - Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, Biden's withdrawal from the race, as well as the weaknesses of Bulgarian diplomacy in the USA.
The divide is not just between the Republican and Democratic parties. In both, some subgroups may have opposed opinions on various issues, making the internal political dynamics interesting.
"Since the emergence of Donald Trump in 2016, the division in society has become much more visible because he has brought to the surface, through his way of speaking and behaving, processes that may have always been simmering in political reality. He kind of permitted them to come to the surface - the feeling that it's okay to express racism, sexism, toxic gender attitudes. This has only increased with the assassination attempt against Donald Trump. More fuel was added to the fire of tension," said Darakov.
"The emergence of Kamala Harris on the scene, who seems to be the consolidating figure for the Democratic Party, happened very quickly. Within 24 hours, she managed to consolidate support and gather the necessary number of Democrats. Right now, the focus is on her, and the Republicans can't come out in full force in the public space, it's just that it's committed to the idea of the first Indian-American woman who was able to rally support for herself so quickly. I expect the division to continue with even greater force until the time Donald Trump's staff can articulate a clear line of attack against it, because so far they have failed to do so. The biggest factor in the divide is economic inequality. There are entire groups of people who are not doing so well in the new economic and social reality of the United States," the journalist pointed out.
Yasen Darakov explained that in Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance's book from 8 years ago, "A Eulogy for the Peasant," the politician explains these changes and why Donald Trump enjoys such support.
Interestingly, 8 years ago Vance was a staunch opponent of Trump - calling him the needle in America's collective vein, using the metaphor of the large drug addiction problem in the poorer parts of the country and the decline of the working class after many of the manufacturing facilities withdrew from these places.
Darakov emphasized that nothing is surprising in sociological forecasts at this stage. One of the latest shows Harris leading against Trump:
"Donald Trump led in them almost all the time. However, these studies say something much more important. Over 2/3 of Americans do not want either Donald Trump or Joe Biden to participate in this election. Outside the hard core of the party, for everyone else, this fight, which we have already seen in 2020, is extremely unacceptable. As Nikki Haley said during the internal party election, the party that retires its 80-year-old candidate first will win. It's only natural that the emergence of Kamala Harris will spark that imagination in people, as a new young candidate, a symbol of the future."
"Trump has spent an inordinate amount of time focusing on the age of his opponent, but now the older candidate in the race is him, as ironic as that sounds. Today, Donald Trump is the oldest candidate ever for the White House, and that is working against him because he already looks like a thing of the past,” added the journalist.
Kamala Harris has several advantages - a relatively charismatic, much younger woman than Trump, with a smiling vision of the future. It captures the imagination of women, who are a very big factor in elections in the United States. Women of colour, especially on the Democratic side, very often save Democrats from losing key battles.
"Harris is going to have the tough task in the next several weeks of articulating a very clear message going forward in terms of her policies because she was following Joe Biden's campaign at that point." The Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu spoke before the American Congress. It should have its policy on this issue, given that the war in the Gaza Strip is causing serious division, especially among the ranks of the Democrats, from whom we see protests in support of Palestine. Younger voters are not as convinced of Israel's righteousness as the younger brother of the United States, which can never do anything wrong and is forgiven. Harris will have to be able to attract their attention with actions that specifically concern those voters who are undecided about who to vote for," explained Yasen Darakov. He noted that Republicans seem unprepared for a fight against Harris, which is very surprising.
When asked by BGNES what the role of former first lady Michelle Obama will be in Harris's election campaign, Darakov answered:
"Michelle Obama has always said that the happiest day of her life was the day she could be alone in her kitchen after 8 years in the White House and make a slice without the Secret Service peeps behind. She probably realizes that she has no experience in this job, other than being the wife of a president for so many years. However, women of colour are a very important voting bloc of the Democratic Party. Women generally decide the elections. The topic of abortion is number one for them. Michelle Obama's role is going to be huge because of the positive attitude toward her."
Harris also faces a difficult choice for her vice president.
"A middle-aged white man who can speak to this type of voter - the working class - will be in demand here. The two front-runners at this point are former astronaut, veteran, and military Mark Kelly of the border state of Arizona, who has distanced himself quite a bit from the White House's policy on illegal immigration. The second possible choice is Josh Shapiro, governor of the key state of Pennsylvania. Trump won it in 2016 and became president, Joe Biden won it back in 2020 and became president," said Darakov.
Asked what a possible victory of Donald Trump would mean for the Balkans and Bulgaria, because of his warm ties with Belgrade, and on the other hand - the scandalous emissaries of Joe Biden, who were exposed in collaboration with the Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic, the journalist said:
"I don't know to what extent the Bulgarian diplomacy is aware of the situation. I think that in Washington at the moment there is a rather passive Bulgarian representation, there has been no proactivity in recent years. We see how Macedonian resolutions are "released" that enjoy heavy Serbian support and violate the interests of Bulgaria By the way, the Bulgarian ambassador to the USA (Georgi Panayotov) was not among the 20 ambassadors who attended the Republican Party Congress the conference of the democrats. It would not be logical to be at the other one. At this moment, Bulgarian diplomacy is missing serious opportunities for advancing its interests. Due to the lack of stable governance in Sofia, it relies mainly on the experts who we have ambassadors, consuls general and attachés in places."
"The Trump family, his relatives and close associates have serious business interests, which have been reported in many reports in the American media, related to Serbia, Albania, the Western Balkans, but nothing regarding Bulgaria. This is another missed opportunity for Bulgaria. We know that Serbia is Russia's biggest and only friend in the Balkans and vice versa. Given the friendly relations that Trump has with Russia, his affinity to support the policies of Moscow and Vladimir Putin, a subsequent administration of his is likely to lead to the continuation of Moscow's desired destabilization in the Balkans," Yasen Darakov added.
According to him, Trump's promise to end the war in Ukraine in one day means only one thing: a decision to the detriment of Ukraine, Bulgaria and the Balkan Peninsula.
The journalist also commented on the lack of reaction from the Bulgarian side regarding the fate of the American senator from the Democratic Party, Robert Menendez, who was presented as a fighter against corruption in Bulgaria years ago. A court in New York found Menendez guilty of 16 charges, including espionage, bribery and promoting foreign interests. He faces decades in prison.
"Should it surprise us that a person who has a corruption conviction will be a bastion of the fight against corruption in Bulgaria? I think that Bulgarian politicians probably identify with him. Still, they say to themselves: "Thank God that our justice system does not work like the American one, and this will never happen to us - to be convicted on any charge of corruption. "
"To a large extent, there is a lack of interest in the Bulgarian media for wider coverage of foreign problems, policies, and situations in Western Europe because they do not want to see the comparison of how functioning democracies and justice systems work. While Donald Trump was in the White House, he had an attorney general appointed by the president of the United States, and he appointed many federal prosecutors. However, Trump's lawyer, several of his advisers and his campaign managers went to prison. Can this happen in Bulgaria? These comparisons are probably uncomfortable for the Bulgarian political class and, in my opinion, that's why we don't see them in the Bulgarian media," concluded Darakov. |BGNES
