Page 38 - bne_Magazine_July_2018

38 I Southeast Europe bne July 2018
He also said that it is very hard to make a good assessment on the expected power consumption in Bulgaria in the next 30 years based on the trends from the past 10 years, but this is needed for a decision to be made on whether the country needs a second nuclear power plant.
Sitting on two chairs
Given the lack of economic arguments in favour of Belene’s restart, Borissov's sudden U-turn towards this project seems based on the desire to spend money for the sake of spending. Analysts speculate that it probably seemed politically necessary for Gerb to change
its decision as Bulgaria’s state-owned National Electricity Company (NEK) has already spent over €600mn to compensate Atomstroyexport for work carried out on the project before it was cancelled. The payment was settled under Borissov's second government (he is now on his third term as prime minister) and, according to analysts, spending this sum pushed him to restart the project in order to justify this spending.
The situation with the Belene project again puts Borissov in the position of the one sitting on two chairs – he needs to
justify his current decision and explain why he once again has changed his opinion completely on a major topic. At the same time, he will have to invent a good justification for his turn to Russia for his EU partners.
Analysts speculate that this dilemma could eventually force Borissov to resign for a third time, or that his government will revive the Belene project just to kill it again after a few years. However, the more Bulgaria spends on the project, the harder will be for politicians to scrap it once again, as again they will need to justify even higher costs.
Fenerbahce, one of Istanbul’s oldest and biggest football clubs, was remarkable just in itself.
Aziz Yildirim was a businessman who had been in office so long few could remem- ber anyone else ever being in charge. He embodied the team’s spirit, so much so that he served a prison sentence for
it – on charges of match-fixing – only to emerge more bullish and popular.
And yet, Yildirim left the election hall without even waiting for the result to be declared. It was an ignoble end to a lengthy reign.
Could it be a case of country following club? The parallels with Turkey’s presi- dential election.
There’s the strongman leader in Recep Tayyip Erdogan, in power since 2002 (and, as it happens, a soccer-mad Fen- erbahce supporter), whose own earlier stint in prison for reading incendiary poetry did no harm to his popularity. He is someone nobody can truly imagine losing.
There’s the fragmented, popular disen- chantment: a vast minority of millions across the country, hailing from different backgrounds, lists opposition to Erdogan as the one sure thing that unites them.
And then there’s not one but five oppos- ing candidates, two with a significant chance of taking this election to a
Youthful insurgent Ali Koc on the Fenerbahce campaign trail. Veteran chairman Aziz Yildirim saw an ignoble end, leaving the election hall before the result was declared.
Turkish Elections 2018:
Might the Fenerbahce board ‘giant-killing’ portend a shock poll result?
JamesInTurkey.com
Sunday June 3 saw a Turkish elec- tion that upended the status quo: a heavyweight leader, boasting two decades of experience and an entou- rage of supporters and benefactors to match, was voted out of office.
www.bne.eu
His replacement – arriving by a landslide – was a plucky, youthful insurgent, rid- ing a wave of fragmented, but popular disenchantment with the ancien régime.
The election for the chairmanship of