Pavlinka Vladimirova (p)

Elias Grammatikogiannis

The internal political tradition in Bulgaria is characterized by a certain instability, which has a significant impact on the features of its modern electoral practice. Foreign policy factors also play an important role in the formation of its political system (including the electoral and party system).
During the period 1990–2024, 38 national elections of different types were held in Bulgaria: 17 parliamentary, 7 presidential, 9 elections for mayors and municipal councilors and 5 for Bulgarian representatives in the European Parliament. Only from April 2021 to October 2024, 7 elections for the National Assembly were held.
The analysis of the election results shows a preserved electoral territorial structure of the vote, but with a significant contraction of the votes cast for the political parties.
The loss of trust in traditional political parties led to a series of political and parliamentary crises in Bulgarian society, as well as a drastic decrease in voter turnout.
Combined with the frequent holding of elections, in which there are more and more new formations emerging around individual political leaders without a distinct political concept, it led to voters' lack of interest in participating in the electoral process.
Traditional divisions (cleavage) of society are also a factor, which after 2022 were strengthened by external military-political events.
Still, there remains the strong negative about the lack of a motivated policy regarding the internal development of the country. In conditions of deepening depopulation and economic backwardness of a number of provincial areas compared to the capital and big cities, the question of changing the electoral system and electoral zoning remains essential

Elias Grammatikogiannis (p), Maria Giaoutzi

Luise Koeppen

In recent years participatory planning has gained significant importance in promoting the dialogue between policy makers and stakeholders, however, citizen’s involvement has been still facing a range of interesting challenges. Despite the advantages introduced by the recent boosting in technological developments for the elimination of the barriers in the field, no corresponding progress follows as to the effectiveness of citizen involvement in decision-making processes in spatial planning. In this context is worth exploring the role of participatory tools in Foresight, as one of the most important stages in planning, since it may greatly contribute to the effectiveness of the process, by rounding strict technocratic frameworks and increasing citizen’s awareness.

Therefore the present paper aims at highlighting the potential contribution of the participatory tools in the foresight process in spatial planning, by presenting in the first part the role of participation in foresight processes, while in the second part the toolbox of available participatory approaches likely to be used for increasing the effectiveness of the foresight process. In the third part the potential patterns of involvement of participatory tools in the foresight process will be presented, while in the fourth part a set of cases from EU projects will be discussed as to their policy implications for planning. Finally, useful conclusions of good foresight practices involving participation are drawn, in order to strengthen the effectiveness of foresight in spatial planning.

Luise Koeppen (p)

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose

This paper examines the spatial continuum of healthcare access, exploring the interplay between individual characteristics, perceived and actual healthcare access inequalities, and contextual factors such as amenity value. Employing a multilevel framework, we investigate how individual demographics, socio-economic status, and access to resources interact with spatial and environmental dynamics to shape healthcare access outcomes. By focusing on both perceived and actual measures of healthcare access, the study contributes to understanding the geography of health inequalities and provides actionable insights for targeted interventions. The withdrawal of government services in a region has long been associated with discontent, this paper examines whether withdrawal of healthcare services is a potential example of this. Drivers of political discontent have thus far been identified as territorial inequalities and socio-demographic inequalities, this paper will attempt to expand this to include structural changes in public sector provisions in detail.

Andrés Rodríguez-Pose (p), Lewis Dijkstra, Chiara Dorati

Pavlinka Vladimirova

This paper explores the economic consequences of rising support for hard Eurosceptic parties, revealing that moving to political extremes and endorsing anti-European integration in national elections comes at a cost. Contrary to the frequent claims of economic bonanza of Eurosceptic leaders, the study finds significant negative impacts of support to Eurosceptic parties on regional economic development. A 1-percentage-point increase in support for hard Eurosceptic parties correlates with a 0.035-percentage-point reduction in GDP growth and similar declines in productivity over the subsequent electoral cycle. While employment and population growth effects are smaller, they highlight persistent challenges for labour markets and demographic vitality.

Using data from the 2012–2013 austerity crisis, the study also demonstrates that Euroscepticism exacerbates economic disparities by reducing investment, increasing uncertainty, and changing the capacity of regions to grow in income, productivity, and create employment. These findings underscore that political discontent expressed through Eurosceptic voting undermines economic resilience and long-term growth, proving that such support is no free lunch.