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Elections #7: The only campaign is the parallel state one
Parties are engaged in lackluster, almost absent electioneering, while the only real confrontation is between the two MRFs

The week: It’s GERB’s election to lose. Again.
Who’s going to run the cities, is there a Recovery Plan at all, what is a Russian-born oligarch doing in Plovdiv

The new anti-corruption law in Bulgaria: what you have to know and will it work this time around
The newly established anti-graft institution was approved by Parliament last Thursday, but it is already signposted with red flags

Another parliament bites the dust. What did it accomplish?
The 48th National Assembly will be remembered for the laws it failed to pass rather than for any meaningful breakthroughs

Bulgaria in crisis: 5 risks caused by the political chaos
The post-election deadlock might consign the country to EU backwater status

The week: "Year Zero" for anti-corruption, new cabinet or new elections, the quick end of the Gemcorp memorandum
Captured state fights back, gas storage slowly fills up and a skyscraper that is not

Putting an end to this agony: Trifonov leaves the coalition, WCC promises minority gov’t
TISP leader claims he abdicates over N. Macedonia "treachery" and gov’t debt, WCC blames Trifonov’s party for backing off from corruption reforms and trying to feed the road cartel

What next for Justice reform?
The besieged cabinet has entered an inter-institutional war with the Prosecution, which has the backing of SJC and the parliamentary opposition

The week: It's all going well if you are a bank, but not if you're a mayor, and a small village has a big waste problem
The honeymoon ends fast for the new government, economic optimism rises

Getting rid of Geshev, Tsatsarov and the specialized courts: What’s up with the judicial reform
The new authorities appear committed to oust the acting Prosecutor General, repair the anti-corruption organs and eliminate specialized magistracy

Geshev Unchained
The new Bulgarian Prosecutor General Ivan Geshev moved into first gear from the outset, picking fights with oligarchs, rural criminals and even the president himself. Is he aiming at something bigger than just crime busting?

A new old gatekeeper of status quo
Ivan Geshev, a self-described "boy from the city’s suburbs", will become Bulgaria’s next prosecutor general in January. His selection will have dramatic implications for the rule of law


A Martyr of (Anti)corruption
Desislava Ivancheva, the ex-mayor of Sofia’s Mladost district, received the heaviest graft sentence in recent Bulgarian history but the authorities’ handling of the case stirred public outrage and sympathy for her.

GERB’s real (estate) troubles have just begun
A series of real estate scandals involving senior politicians, predominantly from the ruling GERB party or with ties to it, triggered hitherto unseen public outrage and serial resignations. The more profound effects are still to be felt

When it walks like corruption, when it quacks like corruption
While the Bulgarian authorities appear to be cracking down on some allegedly corrupt officials and businessmen, oligarchic interests favored by those in power receive a significant economic boost