What is happening in Bulgaria (but nobody talks about it)
Protests are growing in Bulgaria. Protesters in the square to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Bojko Borissov. The post of the journalist Andrea Gaiardoni taken from his blog
The voice of the protesters in Bulgaria continues to grow in intensity. For two months, every day, thousands have taken to the streets to demand the resignation of Prime Minister Bojko Borissov, leader of the conservative party Gerb, which for over ten years, in three successive terms, has been at the head of the government. Resignation for corruption. Because Borissov is accused, like the Attorney General Ivan Gheshev, of favoring the interests of organized crime with his government action, with appointments, silences, scandals, bribes, with his more or less explicit complicity , of the local oligarchs, of the "Bulgarian mafia". The anomaly is that not only alongside, but ideally at the head of the demonstrators, also the President of the Bulgarian Republic, Rumen Radev, independent, elected two years ago thanks to the votes of the Socialist Party, firmly aligned against the action and the modalities of Borissov's government. "A mafia government," he defined it, without too many words.
The trigger of the crisis was in early July, when the Prosecutor Gheshev ordered the arrest of two collaborators of President Radev, on formal charges of "trafficking in influences". An unprecedented clash between institutions. Then the premier's party proposed the appointment of an ad hoc commission to amend the Constitution, proposing a halving of the number of parliamentarians (bringing it to 120 deputies) and a reform of the judiciary. From there the protest flared up in the square, and not just in Sofia. In mid-August, in an attempt to defuse public anger, Borissov said he would resign but only if Parliament elected a Grand National Assembly to amend the constitution, what the premier himself called "my plan to restart the country". The opposition parties rejected the offer. And this is a further problem for Borissov, since the support of more than two thirds of the deputies is needed to create the "Grand National Assembly". He, alone, does not have the numbers. "It is only a desperate attempt to stay in power for a little longer," commented Boyan Bakardzhiev, a communications expert, according to whom Borissov's presence "led to the deterioration of democracy in Bulgaria: the close links between oligarchy, businessmen and the media are increasingly evident ».
THE PLAGUE OF CORRUPTION
The last session of the unicameral Bulgarian Parliament (National Assembly) was opened precisely by an intervention by the President of the Republic, who invited the deputies "to accept the requests of the Bulgarians for the immediate and unconditional resignation of the government". Before Radev's speech began, Gerb's deputies left the hall in protest. Corruption and poverty go hand in hand. According to Elena Jonceva, a socialist MEP, "corruption, which is imbued with the oligarchic power system built over the years by Borissov, is the reason for the situation in the country, which is the poorest in the European Union". A report by the European Parliament estimates that Bulgaria loses 11 billion euros each year due to corruption.
So the tension is rising above the guard level. Riot police tried to block the latest massive protest in the square last Wednesday in the center of Sofia. To do this, he used pepper spray and targeted charges against the thousands of demonstrators, who reacted by throwing stones and firecrackers at the agents. Dozens of injured among protesters, journalists and police officers. The press reports the news of 126 arrests, including freelance journalist and translator Dimitar Kenarov, released in the early hours of Thursday. Kenarov himself then posted a picture of him on Twitter, with a bloody face, denouncing that he had been “brutally kicked in the head, despite having claimed to be a journalist. They took my camera away from me and I remained in handcuffs on the sidewalk for hours ”. After all, the style is reminiscent of that of the premier himself, a past as a body guard, nicknamed “the tough guy”.
THE SILENCE OF THE EUROPEAN UNION
Of many voices, however, one is missing, and perhaps it is the one that makes more noise. That of the European Union. A Union that shows all its fragility, bordering on inconsistency, when it comes to keeping the bar straight. And it is precisely towards Brussels that Hristo Ivanov, a lawyer, former justice minister in the second Borissov government, now head of the opposition party "Yes Bulgaria", points the finger, who has made his mantra of the fight against corruption. "If the European Union is unable to guarantee minimum standards of law in a weak member state like Bulgaria, what good is it?" – said Ivanov in a recent interview with Politico . "The European Commission, which should be the maximum guarantor of the EU Treaties, has deliberately closed its eyes to what is happening in Bulgaria, even if European funds are the lifeblood of the mafia," he added. Every year Bulgaria pays 487 million euros to the EU, but receives over 2 billion (to be exact, 2 169 million, 2018 data). In recent months, Borissov has also launched the formal request for Bulgaria's entry into the Eurozone (or rather, in the "European Exchange Rate Mechanism", that is, the mandatory two-year waiting period for a country that wants to join the Eurozone ).
Yet no one intervenes from Brussels. Nobody comments on the clashes, the police violence, the indiscriminate arrests. Nobody raises a voice to stigmatize the systematic violation of democratic rules carried out by Borissov and his acolytes. Not Angela Merkel, current president of the European Union, not Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission: and both share with Borissov, and with Gerb, the membership of the Popular European group. Again words of Hristo Ivanov: «Brussels and Berlin turn a blind eye to the Bulgarian mafia because Prime Minister Borissov is a crucial ally of the Popolari on the EU scene. For Brussels and Germany Borissov is considered useful and reliable in managing relations with Turkey ”. A role reaffirmed by Merkel herself, who just last May had publicly announced her diplomatic investiture: "The Western Balkans question is not simple, but you, Boyko, have handled it very well and must continue to play the role of mediator" . To the point that during the recent demonstrations in Sofia, banners appeared saying “Mrs. Merkel, are you not ashamed of being with a corrupt person?”, Or “Eu, are you blind?”, Are you blind ?.
(Extract from a post; here the full version )
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/che-cosa-sta-succedendo-in-bulgaria-ma-nessuno-ne-parla/ on Tue, 08 Sep 2020 06:38:40 +0000.