Politico: Scandals in Bulgaria Come Thick and Fast

Bulgarians are losing count of the scandals. There's a Watergate-style wiretapping scandal. There's an agricultural tycoon accusing the government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov of extortion. And there's a state-owned bank providing hundreds of millions of euros to a small batch of favored companies.

The country's dizzying daily headlines feel more like plotlines from a hit mafia series on Netflix than actual events unfolding in a European Union member country ahead of an election on July 11. 

The big question is whether this is finally a tipping point that spells a definitive end to the era of Borissov, the former firefighter and bodyguard whose center-right GERB party dominated the Balkan country's politics for more than a decade but lost power in April. The EU's poorest nation has a long history of corruption but the sheer scale of the latest revelations of state capture is new. The fresh testimony only reinforces widespread public anger that an octopus-like elite has held onto power like a criminal gang, running rackets across the entire economy, and exercising power through the security services, media and judiciary.

"The scale is different and it makes it harder to sweep important issues like endemic corruption under the carpet," said Dimitar Bechev, political analyst and senior fellow at the Atlantic Council. "The difference is that these issues are being discussed by government officials."

In a stark sign that Bulgaria is no longer able to fly under the radar, even Washington has waded into the swamp. The United States upped the ante this month by blacklisting several Bulgarians, including two powerful oligarchs, and dozens of companies, for their alleged involvement in graft, ranging from bribery of politicians to...

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