The Road to Hell is Paved with Political Will

Editorial |Author: Irina Samokovska | August 9, 2011, Tuesday // 14:49|  views

If you are a Bulgarian, or you happen to live in Bulgaria, you cannot possibly be new to the concept of "political will".

What is more, these two words must have turned into a pretty nagging refrain for you.

Bulgaria seems to be a country where everything gets stuck into the phase of "political will".

If a positive and much-anticipated turn of events fails to take place, it is usually because of the lack of "political will".

Once things get going, smelly and protracted as they may be, the presence of "political will" is trumpeted loud enough to permeate the thickest-skinned of thick-skinned citizens.

As the country allegedly struggles toward achievements, it garners praise from alleged European and Transatlantic allies for the "political will" demonstrated.

And this is where things stop.

Increasingly nothing gets beyond the "political will" threshold.

Bulgaria's "political will" purgatory currently includes:

-  a stunningly discredited Interior Ministry, revealed to have absorbed BGN 6.5 M and BGN 9 M   in murky donations in the first and second quarter of 2011, respectively. Following criticism from the European Commission, the Interior wildly rejected at first, then half-heartedly admitted, then bargained out a gradual removal of the practice;

- an under-reformed judiciary, with tarnished names occupying senior positions, opaque appointment procedures, unclear evaluation criteria, poorly-
distributed workloads, both unreasonably delayed and curiously fast-tracked trials;

- a disengaged fight against organized crime and corruption with intermittent special police operations carrying ludicrous names and resulting in nothing but arrest-and-release fiascos or police brutality complaints;

- an as-yet unintroduced stringent and effective procedure for the establishment and confiscation of criminal assets;

- a newly created but still nonfunctioning commission for the establishment and prevention of conflict of interest.

You used to think that where there's a will, there's a way? How about the political type of will? You need to think again?

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Tags: organized crime, corruption, police operation, interior ministry, judiciary, European Commission

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