I think that you're right...it will be election watch central here.

Listening to Attack's leader list the problems that the people face on a daily basis, it's easy to be sympathetic. He talks about poverty, about pensioners going through garbage cans for food, about cancer patients who have difficulty getting medicines and a larger failing health system, corruption in the political classes, and other problems. He points out the problems and is not afraid to do so. I can agree with him on many of the points that he makes...its on the causes and the solutions that he gets scary.

The other parties just talk around these problems. The center right parties show the same old faces and sound as if they are stuck in 1992 fighting the old communists and as if markets will solve every problem. The socialists still aren't being responsive and democractic and transparent. All parties seem more concerned with whom they will/will not form election coalitions than with solving problems...maybe it's that the parties seem to view creating a coalition as THE only problem.

The slippage from the Socialist electorate to Attack was by socialist voters in non-Turkish areas who are a little angry/distrusting of the MRF's leader, Ahmed Dogan. Dogan is seen as slippery and willing to do any deal to stay in power. That hasn't gone down well with many Bulgarians.

I think you're right.. and Poland's got a big one coming up at the end of this year.  Plus Albania has parliamentary elections the first week of July.

Anyone here speak Shqip?

Pax

Night and day you can find me Flogging the Simian

This is a tougher question than it looks at face value. Simeon II returned to Bulgaria in 2000-01 with the intention of running for president. Unfortunately for him, the constitution has a five year residency requirement that he did not meet. Faced with this situation, he brought together the National Movement of Simeon II. This assemblage of various personalities ran on a plague-on-all-your-left/right-houses platform and won half the seats in parliament. This surprised everyone, even (according to some) Simeon, who now had to put together a government. This band of old names, young "technocrats," and others have largely carried out the same policies of the previous UDF (original democratic opposition) government. It places itself in the ELDR (liberals) in the European political space, and maybe this is the case, but one has to look hard to see it.

While some conspiracy theories have it that Simeon has made out like a bandit from his time in government, I don't see it. He seems like a genuinely good person with a sense of noblesse oblige of his position. He steered Bulgaria (along with a good Foreign Minister, Solomon Passi) during a difficult time in the runup to the Iraq War when Bulgaria was on the UN Security Council. We certainly could have done much worse.

For me, the BSP still has some way to go before becoming a real left force. The party has been very slow to democratize and become transparent, which can be seen in its inability to get a clean bill of health from the Socialist Internationale (become a full member) until 19 May of THIS YEAR. I mean, come on, when the Internationale waits this long to make one a full member party, there must be some problems.  

The party is floundering like many of the leftist parties in Europe. Devoid of real ideas, it doesn't know how to serve the needs of its voters under the strains of globalization and the requirements of the EU and IMF.

When it has an idea, it seems not well thought out. For example, it recently made some rather bizarre statements about our currency board which pegs the national currency, the lev, to the euro. The board was put into place after the 1997 bank & political crisis/hyperinflation. Maybe in theory there are problems with a currency board, but in this case, it has worked. It has stablized the economy and built confidence in the lev. So, the BSP has the bright idea to get rid of the currency board...now no one is quite sure WHY we should get rid of it...but we should get rid of it...within a few weeks the party seems to have changed its mind on the issue.

It is also plagued by the demographics of its electorate: most members and supporters are over 55. The only reason they do well in elections is that older voters vote in larger numbers, there are more older voters in BG (our population is declining), and they are committed voters.

Stanishev came as a young face to modernize the party and attract younger voters. So far I think that he means well and recognizes some of the challenges that the party faces. He has tried to push the envelope some, but the party needs change in the top. Many of the faces are the same faces we've seen since 1990...and they seem to reek of the unreformed, uninspired, lethargic nomenklatura of that period. This is really unfortunate since there are some younger members of the left that could be more creative and democratic.

I would really, really like to see a dynamic left force that offers realizable, innovative, and considered policy solutions that are carried out by open, transparent, and trustworthy officials. Unfortunately, in my view, we're not quite there yet.