Bulgaria's new leadership

Foot in mouth

A new prime minister enchants Bulgarians with his forceful ways

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Readers' comments


anonymous billionaire

True, but not in any way informative or insightful. The comments offer much more analysis than the article itself which seems to bash the unrefined manners of the PM for the most part.

Carl Trivelius

Here is an excerpt from an article written by Jeff Stein, a National Security Editor of Congressional Quorterly back in March 2007.

But a former top FBI official deplored the Bush administration’s embrace of Bulgaria, and by extension, Borissov, as a counterterrorism ally.

“Borissov has probably gone a long way to clean himself up,” said the former official, who requested anonymity, “and my opinion is that he was much more vulnerable to criticism in 2005 than he is today.”

But he added, “the U.S. government made a terrible choice in who to go to bed with in Bulgaria.

“What the hell — we seem to take help from anyone, however dirty, in the ‘war on terror.’ ”

Jeff Stein can be reached at jstein@cq.com.


The article discusses Mr Borisov's fight against organized crime at his times as Bulgaria' top policeman, and the earlier business dealings of his private security company IPON, as well as connection to the semi-gangster "insurance" group SIK.

The long arms of those former dealings extends now to his nomination and firm backing of Ms Jeleva, the would-be Bulgarian commissioner who failed abysmally yesterday at the hearing in the EU parliament, leaving impressions of a dirty past.

Not surprisingly, democratically-minded MEPs are furious. So are the Bulgarians, who watched Mrs Jeleva's incoherent mumblings on the internet, and listened to the translation on the national radio.

Manuil Tonev

In response to Valentin Vasilev's plea for more data, readers can look up WSJ's more flattering account of Boyko Borisov's performance (the article is titled "EU Debt Crisis Imperils Bulgaria's Euro-Zone Bid" and can be found here http://online.wsj.com/article/SB126319895247724345.html )

Borisov's legacy will be appreciated in due time - for now, though, the attention to the persona blurs the meaning of his and his cabinet's achievements. Readers may be bothered by his privileged past but that's his blessing, not his fault. Even as the PM, he is not an omnipotent figure that can turn the country around on a dime. Boyko's role is hard, there are many factors outside of his reach and we see him trying hard to wield his powers wisely in that environment. What matters now is that he continues to deliver to his constituents in the present.


Mr. Borissov could very well gain internation celebrity as the famous missing link between the Man and the Cape Buffalo.

Plovdiv Val

The title of your report on the new Bulgarian prime minister, "Foot in mouth", describes it rather well- "inappropriate, insensitive, imprudent". One would expect a bit more depth, a dash of economic data, perhaps, such as changes in international ratings, budget balancing, etc. Things, which improvemed during a very short period of five months as a rusult of the work of Mr.Borisov and his team. The jury will be out for a very long time on him and his government, not least because of the mess left over by previous administrations. It is a burden and no democracy can simply wipe out whole swathes of bureaucrats and start from scratch. The return of trust is a major step forward and not just for actresses and models.
What kind of reporting is this, anyway ? Is this TIME/Newsweek or my beloved newspaper !?
Best regards and don't forget your own style guide !
Valentin Vasilev
Jerusalem, Israel

Mr. Ng

Mr. Borissov is at best a questionable character, with a history that is far from laudable and political statesmanship of a charging boar it begs the question; why him? Perhaps the people of Bulgaria simply found the person who embodied the opposite extreme from the prior ruler Sergei Stanishev. But with such a weak base for being chosen to lead the government, making headlines for another outrageous action and not making headlines for making headway in bettering the lives of the people of Bulgaria will soon lead to his removal from office. Perhaps if he turned his willful ways into a tool in order to pass legislation and make changes, he won't be remembered as a sideshow in the annals of history, but rather as the man who surpassed any expectations.

Carl Trivelius

@San Polo

The late Jivkov, who held power for 35 years, was obnoxious dictator but not stupid. He was a personal mentor of young Boyko Borisov who is not obnoxious but also not very clever. Beside Jivkov, Boyko's list of patrons include Stalin, Putin, and "The Magnificent Seven". Kostov's time has past but I wouldn't call him "incompetent" ruler of Bulgaria - in fact, he did what he had to, in times different and difficult. King Simeon has a sense of duty to his "subjects" but it is second to his duty to himself, family and property.

As the article clearly shows, the patience of Europe with Boyko wears out. So does the patience of the Bulgarians. The clownery is amusing as long as it doesn't bite economically. It already does, and fewer people believe the current government's accusations of the old rulers for all sins under the sun. Unless they start showing some substance their days are counted.

San Polo

As an expat in Bulgaria, I can see this small backwater country has a thirst for messianic leaders who promise to solve all the problems. They dumped Jivkov and his gang to vote for would-be liberal Ivan Kostov in the 90s, then elected the old king Simeon who proved as corrupted and incompetent as Kostov and Jivkov together, just to bring back in charge a coalition of Commies, Turkish-Bulgarians and partisan of the tsar led by Stanishev who apparently even outbit the previous corruption level.
Now we have Boyko. I confirm most of what has been written in the comments. Ex-bodyguard of Jivkov and of the king, comes from the local mafia, highly unefficient. A cross of Sarko and Putin.

Poor Bulgaria. So long as they dont change radically the legal system and remove all trace of communist influence (and certainly dont count on Mr. Borissov for this), the country will not take over and will remain hopeless, with a proven unability to absorb EU-funds. A pity all the elite, top people from any profession have left long ago leaving mostly lame ducks (take the Sofia Philharmonic whose directors openly confess all the good musicians have left to the West long ago).

At least a positive thing from EU membership: it is true there has a huge flow of direct investment in this country into industry (textile for instance). In the very long run - 20 to 40 years from now - it will raise the living standard.


Quite a good picture of the new Bulgarian leadership.
Dear Sirs, please never forget that whoever has any kind of big money and influence in Bulgaria nowadays, and all the other ex-communist countries, has stolen them with the direct assistance of the ex- communists (nowadays all of them socialists)! And please act accordingly!!!
Surely all of you know the old saying that: "Prostitutes and politicians, when they succeed in staying long in enough in business, tend to become Saints!"
And a communist by definition is a cross breed of a prostitute and politician.
And please give a little thought to the following issue:
At the moment of fall of the communist regime, who had money for giving say, the first bribe?
Was this man / woman and ordinary Bulgarian?
Isn’t it much more likely to search for him / her somewhere else?
Who is more likely to get a lucrative contract, the one who pays 100 USD, or the one paying 100 000 USD as a bride?
Corruption (both political and economic) is in no way a patent of ex-communist countries, isn’t it?


Sorry, I made a typo in my previous comment. The words "his fortune estimated to tens and even millions euro." should read "tens and even hundreds of millions".


As a bulgarian, living in Bulgaria, I usually do not care what The Economist speculates about my country. But since this article was mentioned in some bulgarian media, I had to look at the original text. You know, so much is lost in the ntranslation and the interpetation by the journalist (BTW, please, excuse my poor english).

So, dear editors, I am strongly surprised by your choice to inform the readers about the grand father ot mr Borisov. Only about one of them. I'm highly curios to learn why you failed to mention his other grand father, the high-rank officer in the communist militia ?

Furthermore, why you failed to mention that mr B. is not only former mayor of Sofia, but also a former major of the same militia (although in the fire brigades), as well as a graduate of the former communist special police school (thanks to his other grand father, of which mr B strictly avoids to remember now), where only highly conformist with the communist rulers persons were allowed. That he was a devoted member of the communist party, who in 1991 left his service just to keep the membership in the party - there was some law, forbidding to officers of the police forces to be members of political parties. And mr B made his choice - the Party, not the service.

'The Economist' fails to mention the 'dаrk ages' of mr B - the 90's, where he was a member of the criminal underground, establishing a security company and taking business partnership with well known bosses of the new born bulgarian mafia. No one knows how mr B earned his fortune estimated to tens and even millions euro.

Finally, I would like to state that I strongly disagree with the comment of mr Gatev - only a very stupid man can be ashamed of his country.

G. Gatev

An overpromoted thug.
Bulgaria has naver had a prime minister of so low intelectial quality.
I am ashamed of being a Bulgarian !


Somewhat unprincipled (easily switches sides), overly obsessed with image (even for a politician), surrounded by an incongruous bunch of sycophants, opportunists and charlatans (who often make major policy statements, only to completely reverse them the following day). Black belt tough guy with rumored links to the former regime and the underworld. Sarko meets Putin meets Dubya.

When voting, we Bulgarians tend to focus on "punishing" the incumbent, and usually end up picking the candidates who are most vocally opposed to the ruling party, rather than the candidates who offer the most coherent vision for the country. That's how Boiko got elected anyway. I just hope he doesn't create too big a mess before his term is over.


The Bulgarians need such frightening and security-infusing persona, who would 'redeem' the country. I remember one of his billboards, part of the elections campaign in June 2009, on a road to a small village in the countryside, portrait of a calming and assuring fellow citizen with the sentence "A man from the nation".
Really nice analysis, indeed.


The analysis is really very good and real, because what happens in Bulgaria, at least for me it is embarrassing. At present this country is governed only by cheap populism, no agenda and no vision for the future development of the country. Only cheap lies, which give us a society that is immersed in its domestic problems. For every misfortune that government is the only justification bad legacy, although a number of bills were virtually copies of previous legislators. It is dangerous and intolerance, which concern the representatives of the ruling majority to any other opinion, which is a sign of undermining the foundations of democracy and freedom of speech. At least I personally feel like in Orwell's novel.



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