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Bulgarian citizens have been protesting against Prime Minister Borisov and his corrupt elite network since July. The fact that the EU has barely responded to this is not only criticized by people on the street.
By Srdjan Govedarica, ARD-Studio Wien
Sofia is in the eleventh week of demonstrations against the government of Prime Minister Boiko Borisov. Daniel Freund MEP is there and talks to the protesters. It is received with great jubilation.
Freund is a green politician, member of the budget committee of the EU Parliament and chairman of a multiparty parliamentary group against corruption. He came to Bulgaria to get an idea of what is happening with the EU money in the country.
His verdict is clear: “If we cut EU funding for Bulgaria tomorrow, we would not take bread from poor children, but we would take caviar from corrupt oligarchs,” he says. “And that’s why, I think, this is the right lever to bring about reforms and changes here.”
Network of politicians and oligarchs
This is how Freund speaks from the soul of many protesters. Because they have been calling for weeks for the resignation of the government of Prime Minister Borisov and Attorney General Ivan Geschew. They accuse them of having established a system of powerful networks of politicians and oligarchs who pile public contracts and money and are protected by the judiciary.
The EU is securing this power base by controlling very little and ultimately supporting a corrupt system with its payments to the country – this is the job.
“Europe will definitely see what is happening here,” said one protester who did not give his name. “Whether on purpose or not, I don’t know, but the EU has certainly been too late to react.”
Judge Panow fears an escalation
Losan Panov is one of the highest ranking judges in Bulgaria and one of the few in the country who dares to take cover. And in the interview, too, the president of the Supreme Court of Cassation does not beat around the bush: “In Bulgaria, European funds flow mainly into the hands of a small elite group,” he says.
In this way they helped the state to take control of the media and institutions. “The people currently in power will not stop this process of exclusive state control on their own,” Panow said. “So I think the situation could get worse if there is no response from the EU.”
Since joining the EU 13 years ago, Bulgaria, like Romania, has been monitored by the Brussels Commission and urged to reform due to its significant deficiencies in the rule of law. At least in theory, because in practice the instrument is toothless.
The semi-annual progress reports from Brussels have little to do with what is actually happening in Bulgaria; this is the accusation that judge Panov also makes and uses the example of the powerful Attorney General Geschev: “This is a Attorney General with unlimited power. A pyramidal structure is at the top. It determines who will be criminally responsible and who will not,” he describes.
“In other words, instead of protecting people from bandits, the Bulgarian prosecution and attorney general are doing the opposite: putting a protective screen over friends and attacking enemies, political and economic.”
“Crisis of the European rule of law”
“UE, are you blind or do you like it?” Reads a banner held by protesters in the center of Sofia. In it you can see: Prime Minister Borissow in friendly poses with Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron and other EU leaders.
The fact that a parliamentarian from Brussels is now present at the protest, one protest participant succinctly commented with: “Better late than never.”
And EU MP Freund comes to a grim conclusion that goes beyond Bulgaria: “We have a crisis in the European constitutional state,” he says. “And we have to take a decisive approach.”
Otherwise, on the one hand, the EU would lose the citizens of Bulgaria if they had the impression that Europe is financing corrupt structures. “But we also lose people in the rest of Europe if they have the impression that EU money is being paid out of control.”
