quote:

---

(Sophia) Bulgaria's ex-communist Socialists faced a battle to form a stable government to lead their country into the European Union after winning elections without gaining an overall majority.

With nearly all ballots counted, the heirs to the postwar Communist dictatorship led with 31 percent of the vote, said the independent electoral commission.

The centre-right party of outgoing Prime Minister Simeon Saxe-Coburg lost more than half its support and garnered only 19.9 percent.

The rest of the vote was split between five smaller parties, threatening political deadlock in the country that could be only 18 months away from joining the EU but has been warned to speed up reforms or face a longer wait.

"National unity must prevail in order for Bulgaria to resolve its problems and project an image of stability before joining the EU," the deputy president of the Socialists, Roumen Petkov, said Sunday.

---

I think it's interesting that just as socialists in Western Europe seem to be facing a crisis about what direction they should go, the socialists in the former "Communist" states seem to have the clearest vision for a pragmatic socialism and a much better ability to mobilize people around their goals.

I'm fairly confident they'll find a working coalition with one of the smaller parties. The reward of EU membership is too big let slip away. And, at least for the new members, membership has been useful in locking in the political centre.

We must always keep a watch on the extreme right, though. Not least because their resurgence in older EU members.

[ 27 June 2005: Message edited by: kurichina ]

quote:

---

... just as socialists in Western Europe seem to be facing a crisis about what direction they should go, the socialists in the former "Communist" states seem to have the clearest vision for a pragmatic socialism and a much better ability to mobilize people around their goals.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Hephaestion:

Cause for hope. But do they talk? And do they listen?

---

The "image of stability" they want to project amounts to nothing less than a capitulation to the free-market globalization movement that has turned Bulgaria into a third-world basket case.

These same "Socialists" were in charge of post-communist Bulgaria in 1991, when they signed an agreement with the International Monetary Fund. The agreement required Bulgaria, inter alia, to open up to transnational investment capital and embark on a major privatization of state-owned enterprises; between 1993 and 2002 some 78% of state assets were privatized, in the banking, insurance, energy, telecommunications, tourism and industry sectors. Most of them were sold off to foreign investors for a pittance.

These free-market "reforms", as in so many other countries, have led to massive unemployment (over 15% for many years). The former universal health care system has been dismantled, and millions are suffering from disease and malnutrition. Pensions have been reduced to below subsistence levels. Free trade has brought a flood of shoddy consumer goods from abroad, driving local manufacturers out of business. The streets of Sofia are populated with beggars, something unheard of before 1991. Basic food and clothing are priced beyond the means of the average Bulgarian. Bulgaria has become a source of cheap labour for foreign multinationals looking to outsource production.

Still, the imperialist globalizers are not satisfied; more "reforms" are being demanded. Water and sewage disposal must be privatized; government regulation of prices in electricity, coal, natural gas, telephone and even postal services must be ended.

Socialists ("Coalition for Bulgaria") 82
Movement for Rights and Freedoms 34 (said to be "liberal" they were part of the outgoing centre-right government, representing minority Turks)
Simeon II National Movement 53 ("King's Party" of outgoing prime minister and former King Simeon II)
Four smaller right-wing parties 71.

There is some jockeying for position going on, but at least three of the right-wing parties want to form a coalition with Simeon. Some of them refuse to sit in coalition with the Turks, but if all four agree, that's 124 seats, a majority without the Turks.

However, the newest right-wing nationalist party, Attack, is anti-gay, anti-semitic, and anti-Turk, and its 21 seats would be essential to a right-wing coalition.

Many people seem to expect a Grand Coalition of Socialists, King's Party and Turks.

But another right-wing party, Democrats for a Strong Bulgaria, with 17 seats is looking for a role in a wider coaltion. There's a good chance that the present coalition of Simeon and the Turks will continue with the participation of two or three of the right-wing parties. The Turks may be the king-makers, as it were.

Socialist leader Stanishev said that a cabinet formed by CB, MRF, the SINM and the 13-seat Bulgarian People's Union would prove to be the most effective decision. In such a cabinet, neither the King's Party, the MRF or the BPU would have a veto; the government would survive the loss of any one of those partners. But that's a Grand Coalition from left to right under a socialist Prime Minister, possibly a pipe-dream.

[ 03 July 2005: Message edited by: Wilf Day ]