Digital referendums' campaigns and regulations: "Anti -"Gender", "Anti - Euro", and for a Presidential System Referendum's initiatives in Bulgaria

The paper aims to analyze the digital campaigns of three Bulgarian parties' initiatives for national referendums : Vazrazhdane, There is such a People! and the Bulgarian Socialist Party. In 2023, along with the electoral campaign for the fifth parliamentary elections in two years, these parties started campaigns for referendums on illiberal, anti-European and anti-system issues. Vazrazhdane started collecting signatures for holding a national referendum for the preservation of the Bulgarian Lev until 2043 and against the adoption of Euro. The party “There is Such a People!” launched an initiative for a referendum aiming to change of the parliamentary regime with a presidential one by a Great National Assembly. The third proposal for a referendum came from the conservative Bulgarian Socialist Party wishing to ban the teaching in schools of “anti-traditional family values” of the so called “gender ideology”. If held, these three initiatives will fall into the category of “uncontrolled” referendums (Smith, 1976 ), even though it is not clear if they will be “pro -” or “anti - hegemonic”. For each party, the referendum's initiative campaign overlaps its parliamentary elections campaign. The direct democracy mechanisms are also used as an additional tool for voters' mobilization in a “strategic type referendums”, as a part of electoral strategy of politicians seeking to be elected/ re-elected (Qvortrup 2006; 64). Also, “a nationalistic, ethnocentric, right wing and conservative element is pushing above its weight in direct democratic game…One recurring apprehension regarding the use of direct democracy mechanisms is that (they) will be hijacked to promote an extremist agenda” (Altman 2019; 113). Digital space offers a fertile ground for the proliferation of these trends. The main research questions concern the parties' goals; their digital campaigns and strategies; the legal regulations and constraints for digital campaigning for referendums and their implementation.