Fiesty exchange over Bulgarian nominee

The European Parliament is holding confirmation hearings for the new EU commissioners this week, and by far the most dramatic one yet has been that of Bulgaria’s nominee Rumiana Jeleva, who is being accused of having ties to the Russian mafia. Yesterday’s chaotic hearing reflected the EU’s continuing problem of how to deal with Bulgaria’s corruption, which is so widespread in their political class one isn’t sure who to believe in the dispute over Jeleva’s past.

Accusations were flying back and forth in the hearing yesterday, with Jeleva being called a liar by a rival Bulgarian MEP and Jeleva in turn demanding that an MEP come to Bulgaria to see for himself that she has no ties to the mob. Then each opposing side began furiously handing out paperwork to prove their case, a violation of parliamentary rules. When authorities tried to confiscate the hand-outs, MEPs refused to hand them back. Soon there were calls for the whole hearing to break because of the discord. In the end, the panel could not confirm her and had to put off the confirmation until 24 January.

Borisov to the Rescue in Bulgaria?

It’s been interesting to watch the political developments in Bulgaria since I visited the country for my article on vote-buying in February. At the time, everyone was focused on the upcoming summer election and whether any result could rescue the country’s government from the deep morass of political corruption it had sunk into.

As predicted, the newly-created reformist party of the mayor of Sofia won the vote. However though the outcome on election day wasn’t a huge shock, the formation of the government since then has been noteworthy, and can be seen as a positive sign for those both at home and in Brussels who are desperate to see the Bulgarian government change its ways. The new prime minister, Boyko Borisov, officially took the reigns yesterday and introduced the minority government he has formed – remarkably – without entering into a coalition with the hard-right parties in the parliament.

Borisov, a bit of a political celebrity in Bulgaria, formed the new party in 2006 while he was mayor of the country’s capital, calling it “Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria” (known by the acronym GERB in Bulgarian). It’s no doubt a populist party but, as a Bulgarian friend puts it, perhaps “the good kind of populism”. Borisov came to the public with an anti-establishment message, lambasting the ruling Socialists (many of whom are aging former communists) as hopelessly corrupt and saying only he, with his new and independent political party, could tackle the corruption endemic in Bulgaria’s government.

But he’s also been critical of the nationalist parties of the right, refusing to form a clear coalition with the three right-wing parties in parliament– the Blue Coalition; Order, Lawfulness, Justice; and the ultra nationalist anti-Turkish party Ataka (whose billboards, pictured, were all over Sofia when I visited). By not making a coalition he will be forced to rule as a minority government – a fragile position that will likely fall before he can serve out his full term. In practice, he will still depend on the loose support of the three right-wing parties.

Borisov has a steep hill to climb in tackling the corruption issue. Last year the EU froze over €800 million of development aid to Bulgaria because of corruption, mostly out of concern that that money was going directly to regional and local authorities which are sometimes run as fiefdoms of organised crime. EU funds are almost always distributed locally, which presents a problem for a country like Bulgaria where the national government often has little control over regional authorities.

Overall Brussels seems happy with the election result, though Borisov’s ties to the right wing may be worrying. Still, the Bulgarian socialist party has proven itself an unreliable partner for Brussels in the past, and the EU probably feels that for the moment, any change is a good one.

Impressions of Sofia

I'm here in Sofia, taking a break at a coffee house in between interviews. So far the trip has been really interesting. My article on vote-buying is shaping up nicely. The political culture here is fascinating. There are something like 400 political parties, which has created a real mess of the government. It would seem they've gone from having too few parties (really only one, the Communist Party) to too many. This has led to widespread dissatisfaction with the political process, so much so that now three times as many Bulgarians say they have faith in EU institutions as say they have faith in their own national government. That's pretty much the reverse of Western European countries. In fact according to the people I've interviewed it's gotten to the point where Bulgarians now see the EU as the real leader of the country, and when NGOs or businesses want something done they bypass the Bulgarian government and go straight to Brussels. But more on that next week.

Sofia itself does remind me a bit of Prague, at least in terms of its eery quietness and the gloomy expressions on everyone's faces. It's interesting how much 50 years of Communism seemed to leave the same effect on such a huge and diverse swath of Europe. Before World War II, the Czechs had little in common with the Bulgarians in terms of their history, other than their shared Slavic ancestry, one being part of the Austrian Empire and the other the Ottoman Empire. Yet now you can observe so much similarity between their behavior and way of life. In my observation the same goes for Hungarians, Romanians, and Lithuanians; it's this sort of post-Warsaw Pact malaise. But you definitely notice it more with the older generation than the younger.

There aren't many tourist attractions in Sofia, really there's only one: The Alexander Nevsky Cathedral. And even that, when I went to visit, didn't have any non-religious visitors inside except me (in fact it was nearly empty). I spent a few hours walking around the city yesterday taking photos, and people seemed to be looking at me with bemusement, with my map and my camera in tow.

It's a shame really, because the city is actually thousands of years old. It was one of the first cities in the Roman Empire to adopt Christianity and was an early stronghold for the spreading religion. It was also an important centre for the Byzantine Empire. But the city centre was almost entirely destroyed during World War II, and over it was built a giant grid of characterless straight streets. There's actually nothing here that's much older than 150 years. And as it only became the capital of Bulgaria about a century ago, the government buildings have a rather rushed, characterless quality.

At the same time, the city is a lot of fun. The seven strangers have been having a great time, our Bulgarian hosts have been showing us some amazingly cool bars and restaurants. A bar we went to last night was down in a deep cellar, lit only by candles. Intense!

I'm actually the only Anglophone in the group, but naturally we've been speaking English as the common language between us all. A large portion of us speak French, but not everyone, so we're not using it. Take a note, France. It's a shame though because it takes away so much of the motivation for us Anglophones to learn foreign languages, when our native language allows us to communicate with most everyone we would need to. Still, I've had to remember to switch over to speaking Continental English instead of my normal way of speaking. Ironically, it's easier for everyone else in the group to understand each other speaking English than it is for them to understand me, since I have a tendency to speak too quickly. I need some Continental English lessons.

I'm about to head to the Parliament Building to interview an MP, she seems like she'll be an interesting character. I found some YouTube clips of her kicking up a fuss and yelling in the Parliament chamber. so she should be quite quotable! Then tomorrow we have our EU Debate on the Ground and the launch of CafeBabel Bulgaria. If you're in Sofia, come join us!