Page 23 - bne_newspaper_November_02_2018

Opinion
November 2, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 23
Bulgaria’s government has made a habit of turning a blind eye to the corruption — and in fact may be part of the problem.
From bodyguard to powerbroker
Prime Minister Boyko Borissov summed up the government’s apathy earlier this year when he brazenly asked the European Parliament, "If there is such corruption... why do [voters] choose us first and foremost?” Borissov, who clawed his way to power as a bodyguard of deposed communist leader Todor Zhivkov and Bulgaria’s king-turned- prime minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, has long been accused of mafia ties himself. A 2006 US intelligence cable, circulated before Borissov won national office and subsequently published on WikiLeaks, noted that he had been implicated in “serious criminal activity” and was closely bound to Moscow. One journalist even described him as “the Bulgarian Al Capone.”
But you’d be a brave person to voice such
an opinion in Bulgaria. Analysts have long accused Borissov — who has held power almost uninterrupted for the past nine years — of running a de facto autocracy, in which critics are detained on dubious grounds. If judges refuse to comply, they are abused by a judicial regime which has remained practically unchanged since Soviet times. And any reporter who speaks truth to power runs the risk of abuse; Bulgaria currently ranks lowest of all EU countries for its press freedom, leaving journalists to reflect bitterly
on a corrosive culture of self-censorship.
This cocktail of repression and stagnation has created the world’s fastest-shrinking population, with tens of thousands of Bulgaria’s best and brightest emigrating every year. Over 1mn of the country’s 8mn inhabitants have left in just 15 years; though some of these émigrés may return after completing their studies abroad, this chronic
depopulation, combined with soaring tax evasion, is draining government coffers and perpetuating the cycle of poverty which compels so many to emigrate in the first place.
To compound the problem, foreign investors are leaving as well. EU membership was supposed to show that Bulgaria was open for business, but foreign investment has steadily declined, not risen, since then. Now the exodus has become a stampede; new central bank figures suggest FDI fell by a staggering 71% in the first eight months of 2018. The government’s bizarre desire to pick fights with Western multinationals has only quickened the flight.
Rather than trying to stem the outflow, Borissov’s government has turned further inwards, lobbing criticism at the EU and pledging support for hard- right Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in his rule of law standoff against Brussels. The strategy has emboldened Bulgarian extremists and ultra-nationalists, but has allowed Borissov to hang on to his premiership thus far.
Given the country’s economic and political turmoil, however, the prime minister may soon be engulfed by his own autocratic mess. Borissov has already survived three no-confidence votes this year, but as turmoil grows in Bulgaria and foreign firms flee in droves, doing nothing is no longer an option. If nothing else, though, the veteran prime minister is a survivor. Perhaps
the country’s best hope is that he takes decisive action to save his own skin — and alleviates Bulgaria’s troubles as a by-product.
Nicholas Kaufmann is a public affairs consultant currently based in Brussels doing contract
work for European institutions. His writings have been featured in the Moscow Times and Eurasia Review.”