The Economist: Bulgaria's Vote Will Be Lively but Nasty

“Scandal-strewn” Bulgaria, holing parliamentary election on July 5th, is seen by the Economist publication as one of the biggest sources of concern for the European Union. Photo by Sofia Photo Agency

An article of the UK publication The Economist offers an analysis of the vote for European Parliament titled "Scary Elections in Eastern Europe - Time to Start Fretting."

The article voices concern because "xenophobes and populists have been elected in old European Union... but their east European counterparts make the westerners seem tame."

The author offers as example one of the new MEPs, the "Greater Romania" party member, Corneliu Vadim Tudor, "a vituperative nationalist who was once court poet to Nicolae Ceausescu, the former Communist dictator," the far-right Hungarian "Jobbik party, which won three seats, and its Balkan counterparts, including two members of Bulgaria's explicitly racist Ataka party."

"The real significance of the elections may lie less in the composition of the new European Parliament than in pointers to the future course of national politics," according to the Economist.

"Scandal-strewn" Bulgaria, holing parliamentary election on July 5th, is seen by the author as one of the biggest sources of concern.

The publication alarms about mafia-linked parties doing well in the European poll, while vote-buying, rule-bending and ballot-rigging are seen as common occurrences.

The author points out the Bulgarian authorities' attempt to raise the election threshold to 8%, the highest in Europe, defining it as "blatant" and aiming at penalizing minor parties.

"Sadly, EU officials monitoring Bulgaria's shaky progress towards clean government will have plenty to put in their next report. It is bad enough when dodgy characters win votes, but even worse when they count them," the article concludes.

The full text of the Economist article can be found here: http://www.novinite.com/view_news.php?id=104626

 

 

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