Interesting Times for Bulgaria (like in that proverbial Chinese curse)
There was police violence in the street in our capital Sofia last night, in response to a classical provocation (why was that provocation even allowed to happen is another question). It led to the resignation of the government, whose position was already very uncertain anyway, but they hopе to return to power with the next elections (if they are indeed resigning). Sorry, it's really just as crazy as that.
It's very difficult to explain the protest rallies (not only in the capital city) of the last few days; they seem at best chaotic to me, and at worst manipulated by "nationalist" formations (one of their leaders or wannabe leaders is a very suspicious figure, but I can't find out anything about him). From my personal observations, the people who protest or intend to protest in some way or other vary from unconscious communists to fully conscious libertarians. What exactly they wanted to achieve is not clear to me either. It all allegedly started as a protest campaign against the electricity distribution companies who some people believe are to blame for the high electricity bills, but soon evolved into an anti-government protest campaign. There are still people who want a nationalization of the electricity distribution companies, while others (or the same people) want to get rid of all the currently existing political parties, some people want to get rid of political parties in general, some people want a new constitution (and they views of what they want in it vary), and... the more I try to figure out what exactly is going on, the more confused I get. And of course there are now a lot of people who simply want the freshly resigned government to go after what happened last night - and it's far from certain that they aren't going to "reconsider" their resignation, or just stay if the Parliament votes "no" of it.
I don't know the full details of what happened last night, so I can only tell you this much about the police violence: There were too many various events (protests, commemorations and whatnot) going on at once in dangerous proximity, and it was very stupid of the city authorities to allow some of them on that particular date. The worst part is that the Nazi/football hooligan types (not only the local ones!) were there, fully mobilized. So some of them went to what was meant to be a peaceful protest and tried very hard to start a fight with the riot police. The police's response was to first step back a little, and, when that didn't help and only encouraged the hooligans to attack them harder, they just beat up everybody in front of them, including non-violent protesters. There is a video here, but I don't know if it's viewable from outside Europe, or generally outside Bulgaria. That's why the government resigned today but the maybe-former* Prime Minister still has enough hope that his party will have the chance to form a new government to say who would or wouldn't be a minister in that government!
* Our Parliament is to vote on the government's resignation tomorrow, 21 February.
I'm not afraid of anything as drastic as civil war; my actual concern is that we aren't ready for premature parliamentary elections (or even for the regular parliamentary elections that are scheduled for 7 July this year. I just don't see anybody to vote for (as opposed to choosing the least evil).
So Bulgaria made the New York Times, the Financial Times, the Guardian, and of course Reuters and BBC.
I'm afraid only a Bulgarian can appreciate the full irony of this sentence out of Reuter's report: "I will not participate in a government under which police are beating people," Borisov, who began his career guarding the Black Sea state's communist dictator Todor Zhivkov, said as he announced his resignation on Wednesday. This is how history repeating itself as farce ends... our wannabe dictator of a Prime Minister who tried his best to establish a police state is very indignant when the police beats people.
Garth Greenwell, an American teacher currently living and working in Bulgaria, wrote a perfect summary of the crazy situation in Bulgaria in a Facebook comment, mocking the maybe-former Bulgarian Prime Minister's rhetoric (the quote in the NYT article isn't the worst of it!): "Oh tragic Boiko! Laying down all that asphalt, paving the wilds of Bulgaria--with his own two hands, mind, while still keeping his commitment to his Sunday football games!--only to have his beautiful work stained with the blood of silly protesters who want to be able both to eat and to heat their homes! Goodness, but it's *hard work* to run a country! Better just to quit and walk away from the mess you've made."
And these are the actual quote, in case you don't have access to the NYT article: “Every drop of blood for us is a stain,” he said. “I can’t look at a Parliament surrounded by barricades, that’s not our goal, neither our approach, if we have to protect ourselves from the people.”
ETA: here is the Al Jazeera report too (thanks to dan4behr for he link).