Why Bulgaria is Headed for its 7th Election in 3 Years
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Last month, Bulgaria held its sixth election in just three years, but its long running political crisis is far from over. So in this video, we'll explain why these constant elections and they've struggled to form a stable coalition government.
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1 - www.statista.com/statistics/8...
2 - www.politico.eu/article/ivan-...
3 - www.politico.eu/article/bulga...
4 - www.euractiv.com/section/poli...
5 - theloop.ecpr.eu/bulgaria-turb...
00:00 Introduction
01:02 Context
02:33 Bulgaria’s Political Crisis
05:48 The Most Recent Election
07:50 Too Long
Bulgaria being stable for once challenge IMPOSSIBLE
Bulgarian politics has been decently stable in the last 20 years, so this comment doesn't make sense. Not saying things were going well but instability was not the issue.
Literally hasn't been an issue since 1997, with one exception in 2014.
@@user-uf4rx5ih3vWhat are you even saying? Stable going down, like titanic stable sinkage.
For the last 3 years Bulgaria is barely moving forward precisely because the top is shaking. Personally I hope for 6 more elections those next 3 years and get rid of the bad blood bit by bit.
Zhikov made bulgaria stable
Compare to all other Balkan countries we are probably the most stable country here.
Everyone expects Bulgaria's politics to be "insane" , even if they don't know the details.
"Sane" politics would be newsworthy 🤷🏻♀️
hey. From where the pfp?
At this rate Bulgarian political parties will depress voters until only those running for seats are doing the voting.
Yep
Exactly what's happening right now
And then THEY stop voting
This is literally what happened in our last elections
What's with the future tense my brother? You obviously don't know what you're talking about! THIS IS THE PRESENT! :D
USA: Oh no we are having our once every 4 year election, this is is so Tense
Bulgaria: Amateurs.
Luckily for everyone, no one is truly worried about what happens to elections in Bulgaria. As the old Soviet era joke went (admittedly, the original is about Mongolia): "We're the most independent country in the world, because nothing depends on us!"
@@boyanpenev9822 Lol, good one. 🤭 Could apply to many countries tbf
😂
The most interesting thing about this whole debacle is that the country has performed quite well economically during the last 3 years. It turns out that Bulgaria runs well without a government.
apparently better than when with a government 😀
It is doing well only on paper. Once you leave the big cities, the countryside is a wasteland.
Maybe because temporary goverments of experts is apointed between the elections. Maybe they are doing good job, despite not having long term goals.
It doing well by KPI but in reality all major projects are frozen, roads are barely supported, we cannot obtain the post-covid economic boost package yet, while all our neighbours are progressing significantly in the last 3 years.
@@roxader4299 So what? People are moving to the bigger cities for better opportunities leading to higher urbanisation. What’s the issue with that? We’re moving from agriculture-based economy to a service-based economy, so the countryside is emptying out. We have been added to the World Bank’s list of high income countries for the first time and it makes sense. As a young person from a mid-size Bulgarian city my living standards have improved dramatically in my lifetime.
"the mafia kingpin" - I could not say it better even if i tried
Eastern european parties be like:
Mafia disguised as either right wing conservative or social democrat
Useless green party
Liberals that only city dwellers vote for
Ultra pro EU fail party that gets 2 seats on average
Minority party that never breaks the 5% vote limit
Christian democrats (new free holidays if in power)
3 different flavours of Euro sceptic nazis
“Oh my freaking God, again?” - me seeing the title
"haven't I watched this video before?"
@@asheiou "What do you mean you've watched it, its brand new!"
"OH, my freaking God, HOW IS THIS SO BAD!", me, living through it
Don’t use the name of God in vain!
@@asentseto god lighten up
TLDR team is on fire: covering 12 elections in one year 🔥
And then they have to do the rest of the world beyond Bulgaria too
If only they could do it with less libshit bias.
@@AJCrowley0153 Fingers crossed for Senegal, that one’s a doozy.
Regardless the country institutions still work , I think we got used to it , so one could say we have no absolute concentrated powers in one person and democracy truly is working ? 😅
@@AJCrowley0153 😂😂
It's worth mentioning also that despite EU's criticisms of Bulgaria's corruption issue, Ursula von der Leyen personally came to Bulgaria to lend support to GERB-SDS in the run up to the latest elections. GERB-SDS is a member of EPP so apparently a political group's interests supersede principles.
Sounds similar to Fidesz in Hungary.
@@souvikrc4499 very much so
Sad, but true. These young guys prove the situation here is clearly visible from the outside, if one wants to see it.
Ursula is more corrupt than FIdesz and Gerb-sds combined. Just because they don't have institution to observe EU doesn't mean they are not severely corrupt organization.
When did she support GERB-SDS? Source?
As I Bulgarian it breaks my heart that we made it to the world news... Also the main problem in my opinion is that only 36% of the population even votes. The situation is much worse than you think. People lost faith...
Go Back to
Classic Democracy
Stop voting for Gayrine Dickpen
How can you not lose hope, every Party says they are gonna do something but do something entirely different, I used to care a lot about voting and democracy, but now it's like, what's the point?
I think Bulgaria have much bigger problems, the population decrease is one of them. I visited Bulgaria a few years ago, even turkish towns who you expect making more children were empty of people. Since 1990 Bulgarian population decreased by 25%. How can you be a stable country when every young people tries to go to Western Europe?
@@odenat3701 it's the other way round. Young people want to leave because the rest keep voting for the mafia.
Lost faith in what lol. The political system depends on the people, it represents them. If they can't find a representative that's not a political problem, that's a problem of every citizen. And Im saying this as a Bulgarian.
Belgium s Record has been beaten
I did a study about disillusionment with democracy in Europe, Bulgaria made the top 3 in every metric when it came to the countries whos citizens are most disillusioned with democracy and don't trust their institutions.
yeah, you see that on a daily basis over here. the depressing part is that this is also fairly prevalent among the younger generation.
what kind of democracy is this if your judicial system is held by the mafia? We have not been in democracy in the first place, let alone be disillusioned with it
As a Bulgarian we should be top 1
I'm Bulgarian, and this video is quite accurate.
The ГЕРБ-ДПС (GERB-DPS) proposed government is being voted on today (3 July 2024) and is expected to fail. It's not completely certain that we'll have new elections because ИТН (ITN, There is Such a People) or Величие (Velichie, Greatness) might end up supporting some sort of government.
The decrease of voter turnout is mainly because many voters felt betrayed by the coalition between ГЕРБ (GERB) and the reformist parties ПП-ДБ (PP-DB) and they didn't go to the polling stations. ДПС (DPS, the Turkish party) have a more or less fixed electorate support, and even though their votes barely changed, they got more seats due to the low turnout.
Избирателната активност падна доста още през юли 2021. Просто проблема е, че огромна част от населението няма никакво доверие в НС и като цяло в цялата политическа система.
Май ще ходя да живея в Гърция.
yea... my wife used to make sure she makes it to the bulgarian embassy in switzerland for every election because it was very important to her. but she hasnt been doing it in the recent few.
@@PyxleanCool. Have fun in Greece
They were were wrong about no one forming a government after the NOV 2021 elections. PP (We continue the change) managed to form a government trough an unheard of (at least in Bulgaria) 4 party coalition with BSP, ITN and DB. Though the government was toppled after 9 months by ITN leaving the coalition due to the lift of the VETO for accession of Macedonia into the EU. So with that and the rotational government of PP+DB with GERB and support from DPS (for constitutional amendments), PPDB were the only party/coalition that was able to form governments in the last years and both times they were toppled mainly by GERB, DPS, Revival (Vazrazhdane) and ITN.
Part of the reason for the low voter turnout is that the election was held in summer and many people were on holiday.
But most just couldn't be bothered because they don't think elections make a difference. Which is precisely what these people want you to think.
Been there done that, sorry for you Bulgaria.
We had 5 elections between 2019-2023 in Israel, including during the hight of COVID19. Netanyahu was just starting his corruption trial, there was supposed to be a rotational government between Netanyahu and Ganz, but of course Netanyahu dissolved the Knesset after just a few months. Then, we had an 8 parties government with capitalists, socialists, liberals, religious zionists and islamists. We had a prime minister with 6 seats (out 120 seats in the parliament). Now Netanyahu is "leading" the worst government ever.
I'm waiting to see him in Hague.
WTF islamists are doing in ISRAELI pairlament?
It has been rough for Israel... really rough. You think he committed war crimes?
It's a dictate under Netanyahu, no different than Putin's Russia
As a Bulgarian - this is quite a good summary, good job !
They just made a bet with Belgium 🤷🏻♀️
yh but Bulgaria isn't even close to being as divided as Belgium is
And Belgium isn’t even close to being as corrupt as Bulgaria is
@@XD-bx6eesurprisingly after the recent election it seems the new government formation in Belgium will be the smoothest one in a while. It can take more than a year to form a government in Belgium, it hasn’t even been a month and the parties are complaining that it’s not going fast enough.
Edit: or rather we have progress after less than a month which is super rare.
*I LIVE IN BULGARIA* they like elections - its a national pastime, you get a holiday for each one. EDIT this is incorrect - they stop alcohol sales
BUT being serious - this country runs better with NO government than the Uk under the Tories - 5% GDP growth this year, 4 new hospitals in my city alone, 2 new free universities, amazing public transport, public toilets are better than most UK 4* hotels. And its 33ºC today
Yeah, Bulgaria is also worse when it has a government :P
@@Khantia Yeah Id go along wiht that LOL
Which is that?
@@piccalillipit9211 I am Bulgarian from Burgas and what you describe is only in the Burgas region. The rest of the country looks like Mariupol before the reconstruction.
@@EmergingEcho Ive travelled the whole country and I didn't see that
The situation in Bulgaria is extremely dangerous for the entire EU and NATO, but it is often not understood. The economic stagnation and lack of development leads to severe disappointment among the Bulgarians, and this can break this country away from Europe and NATO. It will be a geopolitical disaster for the entire southern flank of NATO and the EU. Russia does not accidentally call Bulgaria the "gateway to the Balkans". A rupture of Bulgaria would open up an entire Russian corridor from the Black Sea to the Adriatic through Serbia and Montenegro, along with Hungary. shaking Bulgaria will also sabotage the Three Seas initiative. Bulgaria is an extremely important country geopolitically - it borders the Western Balkans, controls Europe's busiest land border with Turkey, and in the east has a key role in the Black Sea and the conflict in Ukraine. Bulgaria is a huge supplier of weapons of Soviet models for Ukraine.
The American historian, publicist and analyst Robert Kaplan calls the Bulgarians "the lonely man of the Balkans". Very few journalists and analysts understand this nation, and this can play a bad joke on European politics and NATO's defense capabilities. The Bulgarians are left as a periphery and for many Western diplomats this is an incomprehensible country and people. Russia will use this chance and everyone in the Balkans knows it. Bulgaria must be helped. A rupture in this part of the Balkans and Eastern Europe is a colossal threat to Europe.
Nah, bro.
Yeah, the majority of us who are pro eu are simply not expecting the EU to do much. Being in the western bloc is a positive in our eyes, but we are simply not cared about. Seen as a dying country with a dying people and the future... It ain't looking nice
Bulgaria should be neutral like Switzerland
@@RealMoneyBoyEarly Bulgarian Revolutionaries during the times of the Ottomans did want it to be the "Switzerland of the Balkans" funnily enough.
@@RealMoneyBoy Ask Belgium how well it did being "neutral" in WW2
Let's hope for peace, stability, and a just, stable government in Bulgaria.
Sadly not going to happen.
As a person from Bulgaria, I can 100% say that this is pretty accurate.
as a Bulgarian, this now feels like a comedy version of Game of Thrones.
The big plot twist at the end of this election season will be Boiko is Peevskis's uncle. And the they fucked. In the next election season Peevski backstabs Boiko and sends him to jail
You're mispronouncing pretty much anything with an "e" in it. The letter never changes its sound in Bulgarian (and possibly other Slavic languages), it's always hard "e", like in Shrek or Belgium
Always remember that the easiest way to keep hold of power in a corrupt country, is using "anti-corruption" to get rid of your corrupt competition.
This is literally what PP-DB did...
@@eeeee6717 It's what Putin, Erdogan, Lukashenko, Orban and Vucic did.
Game of thrones in real life is in Bulgaria.
And both Cate and Sansa work hard here for free under Little Finger. Its the Bulgarian Miracle! 0^
ahahahahahahha
Boyko Borisov is Varis and he has little birds everywhere 🐦
Quick update from today. New elections are coming in this October on your local cinema ... Bulgaria - Prive that anarchy is possible
Is election/political burnout a thing?
For sure
Simeon III should have put a referendum for an absolute monarchy...
Clearly
OMG BULGARIA MENTIONED 🦅🦅🦅🦅
Very good summary of the situation in the last couple of years in Bulgaria.
Agree cause in 10 years might not exist anymore which im sad its my country but politicians are dictators in my country
Not even Portugal is that unstable
Compared to any post-Soviet state Portugal is a stable nation.
@@diogorodrigues747 Post-Soviet refers to countries that were part of the USSR, from what I know. Bulgaria wasn't. But even so, I think the Baltics are prob doing better than Portugal, especially Estonia.
And if you're talking about post-Communist countries in general, I think Czech Republic & Slovenia have surpassed Portugal.
In terms of just political stability, a lot of countries can be better than a rich one, even if they are poor. Romania has been very stable politically in these past tumultous years, for example. 🙂
@@dyawr Some countries are doing great (I think Estonia is an example for all of Europe, for example), but most of them are sh*tty countries infested with corruption, oligarchs and vatniks.
As a Bulgarian, I prefer listening to this rather than to local interpretations.
Sounds like a job for Czar Simeon again
Nope, he was corrupt as PM too
They should just restore the monarchy
This is a part of the problem, we expect some kind of KING to come and save us.
Why? What qualities does he have that others don't? The problem is not the PM, but the people.
Yes! Bring back our tsar!💪🇧🇬
day without political instability in EU is day wasted
Some EU countries are pretty stable. Still, much better democratic instability than autocratic stability.
@@soundscape26 Finally someone said it.
@@soundscape26 the far right in germany always says the government is chaos, it ruins the country. man they keep shut their eyes to make sure they dont compare it to other countries around. the far right in germany wants this country to break like the other countries around. just check france, no need to look at even smaller countries.
@@soundscape26that moronic view is why democracy is declining. Its participants have that mentality that its some untouchable religion that people should accept regardless of its consequence.
Please wish and try to achieve democratic stability, this democratic age has existed for
Democracy by its very nature isn't really that stable because it allows public views from all sides, which is always tricky to get them all working well together, but it's the best system we have compared to the alternatives when it come to giving the people a voice, but with so many voice, stability was never going to be its strong point, but compared to the alternatives, it's a far better system.
The only real flaws I see is that there needs to be more transparency on everything governments are doing with the voters, basically, there's too much of a disconnect from the voters and the ones in powers and it's creating a divide of mistrust, in other words, if governments actually listen to the people and actually did what they wanted, things would be a lot calmer in the west now, and this is a western thing with the far right in Europe, to what's going on in the US, the pattern is the same, lack of trust from voters in the system.
Well fuck, at least they have elections.
The results would be the same if we hadn't elections. It looks like we have the right to vote (officialy), but in the end of the day the mafia is manipulating the vote.
@@opushead Well fuck.
Like Russia?
@@markdouglas8073 No, these are actually free elections.
@@dyawr 60% of the votes were either corporate, bribed or government workers and their families and friends who always go and vote for the people who gave them their positions (aligned with the mob-parties until death basically). The elections will only be "free" when turnout is much much higher (only 32% of the eligible voters actually went to the polls) and that will never happen. It's both sick and self-sustaining, a modern form of feudalism.
Israel: I can relate
ITN isn't precisely Euro-skeptic. Or at least their leader isn't. Although they do seem to have started shifting more to the right as time passes.
It is becoming more and more so by the day. During the election campaign ITN said for example that they oppose giving more military aid to Ukraine. Oh, and they also joined ECR in the EU. ITN is turning into a new IMRO, a more moderate version of the far right parties Revival and Velichie.
They were always right, but being patriotic doesn't necessarily mean Euro-Scetic or pro-Russian.
ITN are the reason why we need to have 10% instead of the current 4% vote barrier to enter in the parliament. Utterly useless party that have brought nothing to the table except cheap populism and dumb decisions that followed horrible consequences. When they were in coalition with PP they had 4 ministers: 1 exiled all sponsors from the sport venues, 1 speculated and raised the price of electricity to the point where many factories need it to temporarily close and got indebt, 1 shutdown all major infrastructure projects and proudly said that there won't be starting as long as he is minister and finally, 1 that was so incompetent as minister of foreign affairs that when the war in Ukraine started she didn't have any idea how to bring our citizen back to the country and few sailors were stuck in Mariupol on the battlefield.
I never thought l'd hear such a thing as a "bulgarian mafia" in my lifetime, but here we are.
My condolences to the bulgarian people for having to suffer through this political impasse.
oh the mafia issue if pretty big here, Bulgaria is one of the safest countries out there for the average day-to-day person, but if you decide to start a business here, then shit can get real with mafia
Mafia & criminality have been one of the main issues in Bulgaria post-Communism.
heh heh "pee pee party" huhuhu
Teelo , "Prodaljzavame Promyanata" is too hard to pronounce by an English speaker. 😅 So, it's coming the "pee-pee" (пиш-пиш) party. They happened to be bigger crooks than everyone else before them, by the way.
Peak humour
Bulgarian names are hard 😅❤
And so are bg politics 😂😢
Bulgarian names sound cool. Icelandic names...now those are hard. It's like in Iceland they pick names by letting a cat walk across a keyboard.
You were wrong about no one forming a government after the NOV 2021 elections. PP (We continue the change) managed to form a government trough an unheard of (at least in Bulgaria) 4 party coalition with BSP, ITN and DB. Though the government was toppled after 9 months by ITN leaving the coalition due to the lift of the VETO for accession of Macedonia into the EU. So with that and the rotational government of PP+DB with GERB and support from DPS (for constitutional amendments), PPDB were the only party/coalition that was able to form governments in the last years and both times they were toppled mainly by GERB, DPS, Revival (Vazrazhdane) and ITN.
Could you do a video on Belgium’s federal and regional elections of June 9th and the upcoming municipal elections of October?
Hey! Could you make a video about Romanian politics some day? A lot has been happening these years, now after the last EU and local elections (which took place on the same day) accusations of voter fraud have been flying around as a record number of votes were annulled, in addition to many other scandals.
Omg, spare me. *Romania has been stable for the past few years.* And actually doing well. There haven't been any serious accusations of election fraud, just a loud candidate in a place or two, upset about losing.
Can you ppl *stop* putting our country down every chance you get & reinforcing this horrible negative stereotypes about it, that often have *nothing* to do with reality? This is nothing but an inferiority complex in Romanian society, that fuels other people's prejudice. 🙄
So, is there any other way then a credit card to buy the too long magazine? I'm interested but i don't have a credit card, they are very rare here.
*I LIVE IN BULGARIA* dont let the political situation fool you - things work VERY well here - I found a pot hole last week - reported it on the city app. 2 days later I got a message and a picture to show they had fixed it.
Power is VERY devolved here - the national government only deal with truly national issues like defence and trade deals. My city is Burgas - look it up and tell me if it looks like a UK city
burgas is really an exception, I cant understand why but we call it the "most european bulgarian city"
@@darkoparko6685 - I have not travelled since before the pandemic - but I would not say its that different from Plovdiv, Valiko Tarnovo, Varna. Maybe it is and I have not noticed??
No, it doesn't look like a UK city.
@@ozymandiasultor9480 My rent is €150 on a beach front apartment.
What do you mean? How could it look like a UK city when it looks better than London?
I visited Bulgaria last month on an Eastern European and Türkiye trip and I saw a lot of billboards of politicians and a local explained their elections just keep rolling on and on.
This is a really good summary. Only two points I want to add:
- The new "Greatness" party surprised everyone when they got in parliament, as nobody in the media has talked about them before, but it turns out they had promoted themselves hardcore in TH-cam, TikTok, Telegram, etc. They are a very weird mix of a pro-Russian party, combined with a Ponzi scheme type business, some people call them a cult and possibly also have a small paramilitary squad as well. There are a bunch of pro-Russian influencers attached to them as well.
- There is also talk that the current president will resign, create a party and come as a savior from the chaos. Which is a bit worrying, as he seems as possibly a bit authoritarian and pro-Russian, and is a very good political operator overall, has a bit of Orban vibes to him.
Velichie (Greatness) has already split in half so that was a big LUL in our political system.
We need someone to be like Orban what's wrong and worrying about that i can't understand people they don't want GERB-SDS DPS to be leaders but they are worried about Rumen Radev you can't even put up your own mind yikes. At least the leader will put his country and nation before NATO Europe Alliance and won't even agree with them Orban is a example how leader should act not like our politicians to ass lick for money
Lack of stability is why most of our population left..
how people cannot leave we have production of 10% rest coming from the world our economy is in worst state ever
politics just about everywhere is crazy nowadays
i pity the future history teacher preparing their unit on the 2020s
Thanks for explaining my own country's politics for me mate
FINALLY A BULGARIAN VIDEO!!!
Great video and such a pleasure to see the chaos in Bulgarian politics explained in English and without the local bieses. Of course there are other small but crucal details, but the most important thing is that "the deep goverment" doesn't want to loose control and the majority of the population have lost hope long time ago. Such videos can be very helpful.
Thanks a lot 🙂
This thing gives me deep PTSD as an Israeli
This will get as bad as in Israel if they will cook (never let them cook again) Revival, Grab, DPS coalition. Being insanely corrupt, incompetent and the far right calling the shots...
People really should learn that sometimes punishing liberal parties isn't the way
Bulgaria doesn’t have any neighbors that want to invade them though
@@goldenfiberwheat238 A dysfunctional political system and the rise of less than legitimate political actors as a result of that system's dysfunction sure do seem similar though.
Alternatively, we are surrounded by enemies, what's their excuse?!
@@user-xt1bz2rs4v Our excuse is Communism
@@Pyxlean Fair. While I have the honor to talk to an actual Bulgarian, what's the whole deal with the time you elected your former king to be PM in the 90's?
I think your view of corruption in Bulgaria is somewhat false. Corruption is endemic in every aspect of Bulgarian life and this is just reflected in politics. After living in Bulgaria for 7 years, I would say that the basic message is, "I want everything but pay nothing and especially if I can find a way not to pay." Bulgarians completely know the situation but don't really want things to change if it affects their pockets.
That's like the working class in the UK then.
Very true...
Factually incorrect statement. Did you personally ask every single Bulgarian before making such a bold claim? There are plenty of people that want things to change and you're simply spitting in their faces by refusing to acknowledge they exist.
To be fair to my fellow Bulgarians they did want things to change, which is why they put a whole bunch of reformist parties in parliament. Its the failure of those reformists to make any sort of functional government that has us in this dead end
@@i.m.3940wym? Of course there are people who want change, but most of the people are ok with bribing cops while complaining how corrupt everything is. Corruption is a deal you are not part of as they say...
Bulgarian here; the simple truth is that Borisov is a genius at the game called Bulgarian politics. He always comes as a winner despite the situation he is in. The anti-corruption coalition are fine but you can’t win a game playing by the rules while your opponent doesn’t play by that rules.
If politics is about winning for the benefit of yourself and your cronies rather than your society and country, I guess I can't disagree.
True..
What a mess!
Some details are missing, but in general, it is a very good review
Most stable political era in Bulgaria
A very major point that I think should have been emphatically mentioned was that when the time for the rotation came in spring '24, GERB (the party of B.Borisov which was meant to start presiding over the government) left negotiations without reaching an agreement and presented a new government lineup that hadn't even got the consent of most ministers. It was shockingly unprincipled, dishonest and politically disruptive and has completely annihilated any trust between the two major blocks that are at least statedly pro-EU and supportive of Ukraine.
craziest monet heist in history
Suffered through is very accurate, it is tremendously tedious every other month elections...
Fascinating.
Living in Bulgaria has become beyond depressing. Every aspect of this country is beyond corrupt. I work as a doctor and sadly even healthcare is beyond repair and in need of an ground up reform. It's gotten to the point where It might just be better for most people to jump ship to west europe.
It’s not even less corrupt in Western Europe, we just have more money because of a larger public sector.
Градинката на съседа винаги изглежда по-хубава
a face made for prison, almost as bad as von der Leyen's ordering of billions of big pharma juice via her private mobile phone
It's obvious this system isn't working and it needs to change. So far the two ideas floating around are to change to a presidential republic, which I don't think is a good idea, and majority bonus system, which is used in Greece. It would undermine the people's choice, but for stability, the second one works better.
I'm Bulgarian and your reporting is really good to represent the sh show we're experiencing for the 3rd year in a roll, but is widely skewed. Here are a few inaccuracies:
- I don't know why you keep calling "The Opposition" an opposition - the windows of governance we've had during the last 3 years, they were in power for 2 out of those 3 years, the rest was a caretaker parliament.
- The rotating cabinet that was proposed was a dumpster fire from the beginning. In essence it was entirely out of "the opposition" ministers, with just the foreign minister from GERB, who was a European commissioner up until now, very well respected by Ursula FDL. When it was time for her to form her rotating cabinet, it wasn't "the bad fat man" that plotted to ruin it, it was "the opposition" that didn't hold up the end of their deal. There was a leaked audio at the beginning of this sham, where the leadership of PP did flat out say "don't mind that, they will never get to their rotation, we just need to get our guys in the important institutions".
- GERB is actually part of the EPP and has been uncompromising with the mission and directions from the EPP. Do I prefer we have a better man than Borisov leading the country -- absolutely. For financial and geopolitical direction at least that is reliable
- PP/DB voters ("The opposition") had a falling out because of their sheer incompetence and disregard of how to play by the rules. It's a bunch of "fake it till you make it" excel finance bros that are really not fit for ruling. Half the friends I have that voted for them have given up on them for that exact reason. Apparently they can't be politicians, because the legacy parties know how to do wrong things legally, those loosers consistently do "the right" things illegally. How "right" their decisions are is highly debatable, but it consistently backfires. They came in to power for the first time right after the pandemic, and instead of recovery, they nominally doubled the national debt and the finance minister keeps showing % of GDP to debt graphs to cover it up, as if we don't have the internet to look it up.
- DPS is a mafia involved in political blackmail and nobody will rely on them for anything. Every government so far from GERB we had in the last 13 years, they were kept in functional isolation. As mafia, they are obviously ingrown in to government structures for decades, but slowly their power was diminishing. Now after the "rise of the opposition" they somehow have rebound.
- The elections right now, everybody just refuses to talk. Meaning - not attending coalition government talks. Nobody but GERB want to rule and everybody proclaims they will be an opposition. And literally post-election day.
- The future? - well it's bleak... the president is more of a Russian sympathizer than Vucic in Serbia or Orban in Hungary, elected and endorsed by the same "Opposition". While PP/DB is flying in the clouds trying to find links between Borisov and the mafia boss and engaging solely in smear campaigns as if that will get them votes, the mafia party (DPS) is benefiting greatly from the loss of trust in institutions and low voter turnout. The far-right clowns are consolidating and they are as literal as you can get, repeating Kremlin state TV propaganda points. We have the old Socialist party guard, that are still in parliament and the rumors are the current pro--Kremlin president will make his own party and we will have a strong majority Kremlin megaphone government that is more pro-Russian than Belarus. In NATO... in the EU...
As a bulgarian I am ok with having no government, since that means that businesses aren't being rackateered and are able to grow. That is probably one of the reasons we are doing economically well, as well as the fact that PPDB raised the welfare of pensioners and the pay of teachers (the last being started in 2018).
Best vid about Bulgaria.
You say crazy, I say fascinating.
Very interesting
Todor Zhivkov actually ruled Bulgaria between 1956 to 1989, but you can say he executed total power after 1962. Still, if you take the 1956 as his start, Zhivkov is the third longest ruling Bulgarian after Tsar Peter I (927-969) and Tsar Ioan Alexander (1331-1371). And his rule was actually not bad to the people, if you accept the realities of the Eastern Block and socialist satellite alignment that our country had towards the USSR. Most repressions of the regime were done prior to Zhivkov coming to power, and this is a fact worth to be noted.
Bulgaria is absolutely stable. We just don't have a regular government which is not a big deal.
We miss Todor Jivkov!
Can you cover the Mauritanian and Mongolian elections?
Yes to anti-corruption, fight Putler style government. And yes to breeding its own people, or immigrants will be needed.
I hope things stabilize soon. All this turmoil is hindering Bulgaria's development...
Thanks to you people I finally know what's up with the country I'm living my entire life
At this point change is not going to come from within Bulgaria, we'll be getting pretty much the same results over and over again. Only thing that could move things forward is pressure from outside, be it EU or Russian pressure.
"The bulgarian parliament is my favourite tv comedy show" -forgot who said that but its true 💀
Do we at least get an award or mention in Guinness book for the amount of elections we’ve had?
As A Bulgarian Serb, Not That Much Happens In Person Only In Paper Nothing In This Video Has Really Effected Any Of Me Or My Friends At All
Correction - It's Slavi Trifonov, not Trofinov.
i need to buy tickets to that , that there must be the bloodiest fight for power of the decade
4:02 "On paper two sides agreed... " There were no paper.
Perfect video, very good job!!!!!
If you take two things out of this video - the biggest parties in Bulgaria and their leaders
"Borisov, that was afraid of prosecution" 5:08
"Delian Peevski, the mafia kingpin" 5:30
Enough said... Btw GERB's goverment just failed couple of days ago and we will probably have another election soon :D
A thing not mentioned in the video but I think is very important - the EU are shooting themselves in the foot and are fully responsible for the rise in EU scepticism. Firstly not only the failure to address corruption in Bulgaria but Ursula von der Leyen endorsed Borisov and GERB in the last election in June which annoyed a lot of pro-EU Bulgarians and also gave more ammunition to anti-EU parties, just so she can secure a few more votes in the EU parliament.
Man this was actually depressing to watch, even though I'm not From Bulgaria and I've been rather ignorant of Bulgarian politics until now.
I mean just having a known mafia oligarch guy be a prominent figure in politics... and having one of the most powerful politicians be verifiably corrupt and persecutable (though the latter isn't unique even amongst more powerful nations cough Trump cough)
Yeah our politicians are all thieves and mafia. Everyone
Eastern Europeans:
"First time?"
As dumb qs it might sound in reality Boiko is one of the least corrupt politicians we have. When the Reformists came to power corruption increased and the standard of livong dropped A LOT.
Trumps, Bidens, Clintons, Bushes, Pellosies. There are so many clans in the US politics that are no different than mafia families. The difference is that US is rich and Bulgarians are poor so that's why americans don't care.
There is a British saying "there are no eternal friends rather than eternal interests" i am Bulgarian and I am using this saying to say to your viewers (mainly Brithish liberal young people) that the interests of Bulgaria don't follow the interests of British or biggest EU members our future is bright with more common relationship with Russia, Arab countries and Iran rather Britain.
👍🇧🇬
And I thought Italy had unstable politics
Bulgaria is Italy on steroids + Cyrillic alphat
Bulgaria moment
6:00 ДПС used to be turkish and roma party. For almost a dekade it is much more than that
You never want to see your country in the news...
Today GERB failed to make a government and DPS(MRF) is facing internal fights because of Peevski.
Also, this is without even mentioning the changes to our constitution which make it more difficult to overthrow parties which have taken power (these changes are partly responsible for the loss in confidence in the reformists, because they participated in writing them alongside Borisov and Peevski), a problem which has persisted in our history since 1879 (literally since our liberation). Another change made our courts even more convoluted.
How about EPPs Ursula von der Leyen and Manfred Webber personally supporting Boyko Borissov and his party GERB and being blind about how corrupted he/they are. And than we are wondering why euroscepticism grows…
Why? It's the 7th? Thought it was 19th. You sure?
Guys this is far not the worst situation Bulgaria has been in considering elections, in the 1930s Bulgaria had around 30 (not sure if it was 23 or more ) failed attempts to form a government. It is not going to get any better anytime soon until people start to see themselves presented by a party, just a single one that hasn’t had its hands befouled til now…
Some information in the video is not true. The first time PP won the elections it did form a government which existed for about 9 months.
You want to know the worse part. In Bulgaria's system individual people (and pretty sure corporations too) can't donate to their favorite candidate (at least publicly behind closed doors you have oligarchs probably donating millions to everyone be they Gerb,PP or however else) however in reality these elections are payed for by taxpayer dollars
That's right all these elections all the campaigns of all the party are payed for by our hard earned money you know instead of that money going to literally anything else our country is lacking in like
-infrastructure
-state pensions
-education
-not having a deficit
-programes aimed at fighting corruption
I could keep going...but instead we have to hold an election that ultimately won't change anything because all the parties positions are the same
Honestly as sad as it is l'm not surprised that complaining about politics and refusing to participate in politics is now basically a part of our culture
If we look at Belgium, The Netherlands (sometimes) the US and others we see an inability to form a political consensus because people are viewing the world in very different ways. I don't know how to fix that.
Additionally, Peevski removed Geshev once Geshev started turning on Borisov and Peevski on the back of a staged bombing accident against the prosecutor. Then once Geshev was ousted, his deputy is currently acting General Prosecutor, but he was installed by Peevski so he will be solidified, once the right time comes. Currently, Borisov has sniper security around his house 24/7 and Peevski moves like a presidential motorcade. It's getting interesting.
Or as we say in Bulgaria: “Nothing new under the sun”
Its effed bois