It's increasingly hard to make sense of Bulgaria these days. That is if you haven't looked carefully in the last several years. Because it seems the house that Boyko Borisov has built in the past decade, is falling apart spectacularly.
It is curious how much difference a month makes. In March and April, the government looked steady: taking good care of the coronavirus pandemic with strict measures and little casualties, in contrast to Europe's overall failing response. In May the measures were eased considerably and the economy was still not looking terrible. And then in June secret recordings of the prime minister started leaking, the opposition decided finally to act, the prosecution service responded aggressively and the whole mess exploded in the face of Borissov in a matter of days.
All of a sudden, a new lockdown is no longer an option, corona-cases are rising, people are on the once-abandoned streets with demands for resignations and the economy is heading towards a cliff in the autumn.
"There is no one else who can run the country in such a moment," claims the prime minister, using the same old slogan of all the autocrats everywhere. They love me in Brussels, he says, pointing towards the multi-billion package coming this way. Yet, as you can see in this issue of KQ, Bulgaria has been failing consistently in making working coalitions in the EU, while managing to destroy working businesses at home.
As the people on the streets of Sofia now state openly, this doesn't seem like a well-functioning country. Brace for some more upheaval and post-pandemic turbulence.
It's increasingly hard to make sense of Bulgaria these days. That is if you haven't looked carefully in the last several years. Because it seems the house that Boyko Borisov has built in the past decade, is falling apart spectacularly.
It is curious how much difference a month makes. In March and April, the government looked steady: taking good care of the coronavirus pandemic with strict measures and little casualties, in contrast to Europe's overall failing response. In May the measures were eased considerably and the economy was still not looking terrible. And then in June secret recordings of the prime minister started leaking, the opposition decided finally to act, the prosecution service responded aggressively and the whole mess exploded in the face of Borissov in a matter of days.
