Bulgarian elections

[Bono]

They were giving out cars and otehr prizes with hopes of increasing turnout.

[Bono]

The parties passing the 4%-barrier:

Coalition for Bulgaria are the ex-communists and some smaller allies

SIINM is the party of the former king Simeon II

MRF is the party of the Turkish minority (now in the government too)

Attack is a new ultra-nationalist party, opposed to EU accession

UtDF is the Union of Democratic Forces, they used to be the largest right wing party (and also formed a government once or twice) before the king formed his national movement.

DSB is a splitoff of the UtDF, a bit more hardline than the UtDF (new party).

BPU is a christian democratic/agrarian party, already in parliament

So, the ex commies can't really form a government, being that the other parties are all more or less right-wing.

[Bono]

And Simeon? Future president?

No idea.

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Not a member of the new cabinet, replaced by a Socialist.

The new cabinet includes 8 Socialists not counting Stanishev, one of them (the new foreign minister) also deputy pm, 5 Simeonites (but neither Passy nor Simeon), 3 Turks (but not their party head Ahmet Dogan), and one independent (at finance. He used to be of the main rightwing party, the Union of Democratic Forces, and was deputy finance minister from 97-01. He quit that party in 03.)

Let's hope this government is capable of finishing all the reforms necessary to be admitted to the European Union. The antipathy between the socialists and the simeonites does not promise much good.

Hopefully not. it would be terrible for the EU to fail admiting them, so I hope they do fail it.