Talk:Politics of Bulgaria
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The text below, was removed from the now deletd 'Bulgaria political landscape' article, which was deleted due to it's POV content. However if anyone wishes to NPOV this text and add it to the Politics of Bulgaria article, Please do so G-Man 19:13 2 Jul 2003 (UTC)
"Depending on the attitudes and spirits of the assessor, Bulgarian political landscape can be seen as a fascinating story of continued intrigue; as a disjointed sequence of poorly planned and mostly reactionary events; as a passive-aggressive battle for establishment and the ability to be heard; as a desperate struggle for power; as an example of climbing to the top not by being worthy but making competitors look even worse; or as a struggle for offices that, by and in themselves, are much more important than the opportunity to serve people, which is offered to those who take the office. This is not to say that Bulgaria did not give birth to political leaders with noble intentions, appropriate focus, significant intelligence, impressive education, and a good taste for political combat. Nevertheless, these positive elements are persistently overshadowed by a never-ending chain of misalliances on the background of shaky platforms, unfulfilled promises, mistrustful handshakes, and public deceitfulness. The end of the communist era brought opportunity to the land full of anticipation, anger, suppressed desire to speak and to be heard, concealed insults, instability, uncertainty, strife, and disillusionment. The taste of practiced human rights and pronounced freedoms sprouted a wave of political activity, as powerful, as difficult to control, and as full of potential destruction as a tsunami. In 12 years (June 1990 through June 2001), the country saw five (5) presidential elections, which translates to six different governments and the average time of two (2) years of ?governmental survival?. The life of a Bulgarian political party is a strange combination of leapfrogging and musical chairs. Even the task of identifying participants in Bulgarian politics is practically impossible. No two reputable sources offer consistent (and therefore reliable) information and any information that appears trustworthy may be outdated by the time it is presented to the public. Further complicating this environment is the game of namesakes used to despoil political victors or potential victors of their rightful votes by intentionally confusing often illiterate or poorly educated population. For example, a voter may not realize that National Union for Tzar Simeon II that collected 1.7% of votes in the last Parliamentary elections (June 2001) has nothing to do with National Movement Simeon II (NMSS or NMS2), which emerged as a winner of the elections with 42.7% of votes. The approach, ?If is sounds like NMS2, looks like NMS2, and reads like NMS2, it is NMS2?, does not work in Bulgarian politics. The inability (regardless of the causes and motifs) of the leading Bulgarian political parties to establish a reasonably stable and structured political landscape and the continued realignment and reshaping of political coalitions result in the environment where minority parties accumulate unjustifiably high power potential, exert significant political influence, and assert controlling presence in the National Assembly. As such, MRF acts as a winning token in the struggle of NMS2 against combined forces of unlikely bed partners, UDF and BSP. The Bulgarian political world of shifting sand prohibits development of strong and committed political followings. Only one party, MRF, running on the ticket of struggle for freedom of expression and veiled anger common for previously suppressed minority populations, did not experience material attrition in membership during the last 15 years. An average voter cannot help but be confused in the political theater of continuously changing cast, stage directors, authors of librettos, language of playbills, light technicians, critics and statisticians, box office personnel, and ushers. Not surprising, poll turnouts are steadily dwindling, with an almost insignificant exception in 2001. When one realizes that a country with less than 8,000,000 residents has approximately 240 political parties, one pauses in awe and disbelief. Somewhat better understanding of the membership, platform, and ?reason for living? of many of these parties leaves disbelief undisturbed but changes awe to an ironic grin. It is quite clear that Bulgaria must step of its current road of political disaster and must develop a political course that would assure much greater stability, predictability, and public support. It is not clear what this course should be and whether the country is ripe to commit to another monumental change."
