Roaring Lions or Simple-minded Fellows - Take your Pick

There's an old piece of weather lore, that says: "When March comes in like a lion, it goes out like a lamb".

Well, March certainly entered like a lion in Bulgaria this year - not only the weather! And, we are not yet halfway through the month.

So, who started the bitter fight between the Bulgarian Deputy PM, Simeon Djankov, and the President, Georgi Parvanov? And why? Was it just an inappropriate joke made on TV by the former, or was it deliberately intended to touch a raw nerve in the latter?

Whatever view one takes on the row, it's gone on and on for almost two weeks, with no sign of abating. On Friday, the President has called a rare press conference... the nation awaits!

In my position, I'm not qualified to analyze the deep inter-party intrigues, the reasons behind the sudden (and almost unprecedented) publication of the online transcript of the now infamous exchange between the two protagonists. Nor do I need to, as they have already been analyzed in depth by Novinite.com.

What I have been waiting for, and it's only come out on Thursday, a full 11 days after the curtain-raiser, is for someone - anyone, to comment on the fact that this spat is not only distracting and harmful to the top administration of Bulgaria and the electorate, but that it could well have enormous international implications.

The Blue Coalition MP for the constituency of Vratsa, Asen Agov, is the first to state publicly that this bitter battle, which may even end in impeachment for the President, has a dimension that goes well beyond Bulgaria’s domestic borders.

He has warned that the affair could grow into "a colossal foreign policy scandal", claiming that foreign diplomats have asked whether their own conversations with the President have been recorded without their knowledge or consent, an action that is illegal under Bulgarian law.

Agov went even further, stating: "This is a violation of international law in such formal meetings".

If the rightist MP is correct in his analysis, given that his Blue Coalition leader, Ivan Kostov, favors impeachment of the President, and with the reasonable possibility of a parliamentary minimum of 161 votes for the motion, there's going to be an almighty fracas both within Bulgaria and on her European and international doorsteps.

As one would expect, the foreign diplomats alluded to by Agov are all keeping mum. But they, and the governments they represent, are certainly not going to be "best pleased" if it transpires that the President has actually recorded meetings without their knowledge and consent.

It's looking like another own-goal for Bulgaria, internationally, whatever the outcome of this scandal. With the recent controversy and embarrassment of Rumiana Jeleva's disastrous interview performance still fresh and raw in European and Bulgarian minds, how many times is this country going to send the wrong signals to the international community?

It was President Parvanov himself who recently took credit for suggesting to no less a personage than EC President Jose Manuel Barroso that Bulgaria should become the EU's regional hub in Southeastern Europe, coordinating the Union's attempts to integrate the Western Balkans and assist with their accession efforts.

Then, there’s the question of Belgium, which could make life difficult for Bulgaria’s European standing. That country takes over the rolling EU presidency when the current Spanish mandate expires in June 2010.

On Wednesday, Olivier Chastel, Belgian chief coordinator of the trio of presidencies consisting of Spain, Belgium, and, in the first half of 2011, Hungary, referred to "lessons learned" from the previous EU enlargement (of Bulgaria and Romania in 2007), and signaled that his country's EU Presidency will take its own, balanced view on the accession of other Balkan countries.

Is Belgium, with an already-declared harder line on future accession than recent EU Presidency incumbents, going to turn to Bulgaria as a "hub" in any case, but certainly once the current dangerous charade has played out, whatever the result? Place your bets, now!

The Bulgarian Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov, managed yet another cutting sound-bite on Monday, when he commented that: "What Parvanov did was an act of a small-minded fellow". This followed his declaration the previous day that: "If President Georgi Parvanov wants war, I am OK with that. He will get it".

Gloves off, then - it's now President vs. Government, and may the best man win!

Sadly, whatever the rights and wrongs of this hugely over-blown drama between the Bulgarian Presidency and the Government, there's going to be no real winner.

In fact, the very opposite. Impeachment or no, new elections or no; the foolish and precipitate actions of a key group of senior politicians in Bulgaria are going to set the country back, both domestically and at a European level, in a totally unnecessary and reprehensible way.

But will this bunch of macho administrators learn a lesson from this debacle? Sadly, one suspects not. They all seem too wrapped up in their own, highly personal turf wars, some of which date back more than 20 years, and have forgotten (or don't care about) what and whom they were elected to represent - a functioning democracy, and a responsible, trusting electorate. Shame on them all, "small-minded fellows".

Whatever happened to that proud Bulgarian symbol, the noble lion?

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