Sofia - Socialist Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev may have whisked Bulgaria into the European Union despite the country not meeting all the criteria for membership, but few voters remembered that feat as they cast their ballots on Sunday, 18 months later. What average voters did remember was that they still survive on the equivalent of 300 dollars a month, as distinctly the poorest country in the EU family, while officials are caught embezzling millions but walk free.
Widespread abuse spurred the EU, which allowed Bulgaria to join in 2007 on condition that it would reform its inefficient and corrupt judiciary, to suspend or scrap 1 billion dollars in development aid already in 2008.
According to early, unofficial results, 41 per cent of voters backed opposition leader Boyko Borisov, a popular former interior ministry official with a "clean hands" policy, while a mere 17 per cent voted for Stanishev.
Borisov, the Sofia mayor and the informal leader of the new GERB party, is now in position to forge a government coalition, though he had never before been tested in parliamentary elections.
Actually, with the economic downturn sapping any remaining wind from the EU accession out of Stanishev's sails, Borisov had to do little more than attack the authorities for corruption.
Asked in a recent interview what he saw as the greatest threat to Bulgaria, Borisov said: "Corruption. It erodes everything, the judicial system, the intelligence services, our very statehood. That is why we first must try to fight corruption."
There was no real answer to that, particularly with suspected criminals, including embezzlers of EU money who cost Bulgaria its aid from Brussels, were free on the streets to campaign for Parliament seats with immunity from prosecution or incarceration.
Such cases only added salt to the wounds of regular people who have watched arrogant "businessmen," which is a euphemism for a criminal in much of the Balkans, get away with everything, including murder, owing to their money and connections.
Former premier and abdicated King Simeon II fared even worse than Stanishev, his National Movement failing to clear the 4-per-cent threshold to qualify for Parliament - not least because it had a hand in murky businesses over eight full years.
One of GERB leaders, Cvetan Cvetanov, promised Sunday that The election outcome would transform Bulgaria into a "new country."
"Bulgarians will no longer need to be ashamed of their leaders," he said.
Borisov on Sunday promised to have a cabinet in place quickly for the tall order of turning Bulgaria around.
