Fiasco and Hope After Bulgarian Government Resignation - Der Standard

Bulgaria is in the middle of a systematic crisis, but the civil society against the Oresharski cabinet is a ray of light for democracy, an Austrian media outlet speculates.

In a commentary published on Der Standard website, author Markus Bernath claims that for fourteen months, the social-liberal Coalition for Bulgaria has been a fiasco. Not that much for the poor majority in the country which acquired some small benefits: more money for single mothers, small reductions in electricity bills. Better social policy is impossible in a country with so much anticommunism.

The government led by financier Plamen Oresharski was more than a debacle for the economy and the institutions of this country - member of the EU - the chosen parliament which was increasingly boycotted by those who lost the elections and pressurized by the street; the coalition which sought the support of far-right extremists without admitting it and which tried to make an oligarch and a media tycoon chairman of the secret service, the commentary reads.

The government's resignation and the early elections in October will not stop the ongoing instability. Bulgaria is stuck in a systematic crisis. It is in need of democracy reconstruction. The list of old and new mortgages that Oresharski leaves behind is spectacular: an indebted energy sector, South Stream, a bank with a billion-large hole, the oligarch Delyan Peevski and his supporters, an insufficient reform of the election code, decreasing investment. There is, however, a light in the tunnel, Bernath notes. The civil society against Oresharski will chase his successors with demands for higher transparency.