Comment by Ivaylo Noizi Tsvetkov:
Along with all the squabbles around our Anti-Corruption Commission - whether it was a combination of batons, tapes (from recordings) or hoops (from companies) - everyone missed one piece of news from Lithuania, which is distant in every way.
There, Prime Minister Gintauskas Palukas resigned because the local prosecutor's office is investigating him for corruption. Note: only because of a signal and an investigation. He was neither ostentatiously detained, nor were the investigative bodies in Vilnius, Kaunas or Klaipeda accused of a political attack. There were, of course, protests, quite civilized ones, because the local prosecutors are digging into his previous business activities - which, by the way, they claim is also current, through proxy persons and relatives.
Lithuanians do not want to be "liberated" by Russia again
According to their system there, none other than President Gitanas Nauseda announced the resignation of the prime minister. Palukas, who is the leader of the Social Democrats, headed a three-way coalition last October. And now notice: these suspicions alone led not only to his resignation, but also to the resignation of the entire government, and - as the newspaper "Kurier Vilenski", which is published in Polish in Vilnius, blabbers - a few days before the announced military exercises of Russia near the Belarusian-Lithuanian border.
It is important to note here that the Lithuanians, also "liberated" twice by the Russians, take much more seriously the question of which country is next in Putin's doctrine of restoring "traditional spheres of influence". And unlike us, the Baltic states do not sway in the direction of "hello, brothers", but are very seriously and anxiously following what Putin's dream of a neo-Russian empire is doing. There are practically no Eurosceptics there - they understand, but they refuse to speak Russian on a daily basis.
Corruption in Greece - similarities and differences
Is Lithuania far away from you, in terms of culture and everything? Okay, let's look at our beloved neighbors Greece - a country magnificent in every way, except that it has gone from subtropical to tropical. Less than a month ago, not one or two, but four ministers from the conservative government of "New Democracy" were fired after they found themselves under investigation for corruption related to European agricultural funds. The revelations were made by Laura Kövessi herself, the EU's chief prosecutor, and her Greek deputy, Poppy Papandreou.
The scandal was huge, although the Bulgarian media did not pay attention to it, because the Greeks, like us, are a little fond of corrupt practices - their organization OPEKEPE, which distributes money for agriculture, was dismantled by the European prosecutor's office. To the extent that the Mitsotakis government was seriously shaken. Of course, due to cultural and geographical-mental peculiarities, it did not resign. What will he give, when he can simply throw a few ministers "under the bus"?
Hungary, Bulgaria and the tactic of counterattack
And here is how the imitation pro-Trump authorities operate, where we are also stumbling, with the example again from a few days ago: the darling of our current strongmen, Viktor Orban, does not waste time when the almost crushed opposition in Hungary talks about corruption, but directly counterattacks. He, in turn, accused Ursula von der Leyen herself of corruption and demanded her resignation.
What corruption, exactly? It is not clear, but this is somewhat a native tactic, as you have probably noticed. If we simply throw serious accusations at anyone, there is no need for specifics - the new "digital" community will do the rest on its own. And the new "digital" community, because it has no immune defenses against even the simplest cop and government tricks, takes up with erotic fervor the accusations thrown into space and raises them to the sky. This in turn leads to one of the most dangerous things in our era - how Facebook influences and imposes the agenda of both the media and even the judiciary, just for the sake of hysteria.
And will we live to see this in Bulgaria...?
But since I started with my "friend", the Lithuanian Prime Minister: we are unlikely to live to see a ruler in Bulgaria who, outraged by the accusations against him, resigns until his name is cleared. Or corruption is proven - after all, the judicial system must decide for this purpose.
Can you imagine any of our censors coming down from the Bulgarian Olympus of sorts on their own to "save face"? And "gönsurat" is a wonderful Turkish word, which literally means thick skin on the face, i.e. in case of great shame, to continue acting as if nothing had happened.
It's been mentioned before, but do you know why political gypsies are completely acceptable in our country? Because of the complete lack of real civil outbursts against it and because of our particular cultural trait, in which the average Bulgarian, if there is such an animal at all, actually dreams of being in the place of those against whom he should protest. And he has no idea that fighting against them would improve his average Bulgarian life.