Hoping For a Thaw

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Freedom of information advocacy group Reporters Without Borders once concluded that Bulgarian media mogul and political boss Delyan Peevski embodied the “corruption and collusion between media, politicians, and oligarchs.”

Many Bulgarians agree. Around a decade ago they took to the streets to protest against Peevski’s role in politics due to his unsavory relationship with former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. The US has also slapped sanctions on Peevski for corruption.

“Peevski has significant control over the judiciary and the security services and Mr. Borisov has old sins that he is afraid (will be punished) if there are real working courts and prosecutors,” another former prime minister, Kiril Petkov, told Politico. “So Borisov brings the votes and Peevski guarantees that the current institutions do not pose risks.”

Now, however, Peevski and his allies’ grip over Bulgaria’s government might be loosening. Borisov’s center-right Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria party (GERB) held office from 2009 to 2021, but since then, the Balkan country has had six parliamentary elections where GERB could not form a government. When it could, it lasted less than a year.

Meanwhile, four out of the six votes failed to lead to an elected government after reformers like Petkov sought to crack down on graft and exorcise Russian influence from the former communist nation, added the Associated Press.

Borisov has now distanced himself from Peevski due to the latter’s unpopularity, reported Radio Free Europe. Longtime leaders of Peevski’s Movement for Rights and Freedoms party, which traditionally represents the Turkish minority in the country, have also expressed anger at Peevski’s moves to kick them out so he can solidify control of the party.

These changes come after the election in June that resulted in yet another political impasse, when Bulgarian President Rumen Radev rejected then-interim Prime Minister Goritsa Grancharova’s proposed government choice for interior minister, Kalin Stoyanov – a Peevski ally – Balkan Insight explained.

Radev has now scheduled a new vote for Oct. 27. No one is expected to win a clear majority. Borisov’s GERB is expected to garner about 24 percent of the vote, according to polls cited in the English-language news website Sofia Globe. Reformers under Petkov’s We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria are slated to come in second with under 15 percent. Peevski’s Movement for Rights is on track to win around 6 percent. A few other parties are in the running.

Writing in the Financial Times, Bulgarian political analyst Ivan Krastev lamented that his country had become a “frozen democracy.” The far right can’t win power, he says, while the center are just calling out the corrupt. But nothing is changing, and the people are growing tired.

Bulgarians want a thawed-out democracy. But what they are getting is something very different, he said, adding: “The suspicion is that political parties cannot govern because they do not want to govern. It is more important for their constituents to know whom they will not cooperate with than what can be achieved. The unresolved question of Bulgarian politics is: who actually rules the country?”