site.bta Bankruptcy, Conflict, and New Hope:Political Analysts Look Back on 2014

Bankruptcy, Conflict, and New Hope:Political Analysts Look Back on 2014

Sofia, December 22 (BTA) - Bankruptcy, conflict, and new hope -
this is what the year 2014 was about for political analysts
Daniel Smilov, Dimiter Ganev, and Peter Nikolov.

Ganev believes that "conflict" is the word that best describes
the outgoing year. He says there were two major international
events which redrew the geopolitical map: the conflict in
Ukraine and the emergence of the Islamic State.

According to Ganev, 2014 was not a good year for Bulgaria
either. The political crisis which first shook the country in
early 2013 was not resolved in 2014. For the second straight
year there were three successive governments replacing each
other. The early parliamentary elections on October 5 created an
 extremely complicated situation in Parliament, while public
confidence in the political elite remains very low, Ganev says.

The year was also bad for the nation from an economic
perspective: the government deficit exceeded the 3 per cent mark
 set by the EU, the national debt increased, the country's
fourth-largest bank, Corpbank, went bankrupt, unemployment was
not curbed, and the prospects of economic growth are not good.
This means that 2015 will be a tough year for Bulgaria, Ganev
says.

Smilov, when asked to describe 2014, gave the word "bankruptcy":
 the government of former Prime Minister Plamen Oresharski went
"bankrupt", and so did Corpbank, he recalled. What needs to be
done now is to deal with the consequences of these two
bankruptcy cases, to set politics free of corporate
dependencies, and to have an effective government - because
things got almost out of control over the last couple of years,
Smilov said.

Internationally, the top news this year was the events in
Ukraine, Smilov believes. They had repercussions on Bulgaria,
such as the abandonment of the South Stream gas pipeline
project. Smilov sees improvements in civil society culture in
Bulgaria as citizens became more aware of the corporate
influences on the government.

According to Nikolov, 2014 was a year of new hope. The people
felt strong, they realized they could play a role in politics
and make themselves heard. At the same time, they resisted the
temptation of looking for the next messiah and made a more
rational choice, drawing an adequate response from both the
ruling parties and the opposition, Nikolov said. This was a
difficult period for the Bulgarian political class, he
concluded.