AS OF a few months ago, it was possible to hope that Bulgaria’s parliamentary election on March 26th might be fought over the crucial issue of corruption. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, of the centre-right GERB (“coat of arms”) party, called the elections in November after his party’s candidate lost the presidential race to Rumen Radev, a former air-force general backed by the rival Socialists. Mr Borisov, who became prime minister in 2014 after a banking crisis and a wave of anti-corruption protests, had turned the presidential vote into a referendum on his leadership. Voters, disappointed by slow anti-corruption efforts as well as controversial reforms in education and health care, gave him a thumbs-down.
The polls are showing a tight race, with GERB and the Socialists each getting about 30% support. “None of the big parties has a clear lead,” says Daniel Smilov of the Centre for Liberal Strategies, a think-tank. Meanwhile, a new anti-corruption party, Yes Bulgaria, hopes to capitalise on anger against self-dealing elites. The party models itself on the Save Romania Union, which won 9% of the vote in Romania’s elections in December. But Yes Bulgaria’s...Continue reading
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