The use of online tools for internal and external party communication is an established part
of party politics in Central and Eastern Europe. This development became further catalysed
by the COVID-19 pandemic as parties heavily relied on such tools in their recent election
campaigns at local and national levels. By far the most experience in this respect has been
gathered in Bulgaria, which held four parliamentary elections between April 2021 and
October 2022. This article explores the media narratives on party digitalization from key
media outlets in the period between 2020 and 2022. Has party digitalization been perceived
as a vehicle for narrowing the gap between political parties and society or does this gap
seem to have grown by the extensive use of online tools? The findings of this work would
help us understand the effects of party digitalization on its relations with wider society.
