Bulgarian elections

[minionofmidas]

Is that the same king whose government sided with the Nazis in WWII?

Two things should be noted.  First Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha was less than a six or seven year old, IIRC, when the Soviets entered Bulgaria.

'Xactly.

[minionofmidas]

MRF has governed with the Socialists in the past IIRC. BPU also sounds like an option.
Or a grand coalition. I don't see a viable right or center-right option.

[minionofmidas]

Thank God for the Frankfurter Rundschau. Always some of the best coverage of Eastern European and African elections.
Well, first off - while I was right about Socialist-Turkish options, I was wrong about Socialist-BPU. That means there'll likely be a grand coalition, perhaps including MNF as well.

On Attaka:
Their top man is Volen Sidorov. Sidorov used to be the editor-in-chief of the UtDF's newspaper until he was sacked amid (unproved) allegations that he used to work for the Communist era Secret Police. He then went off to some previously little known private TV station and got his own hardhitting politics show, for which the party is named.
Here's what the article says about Sidorov's positions:
-Racist comments against Turks and Roma (who make up 10% and 5% of the population, respectively. Most Bulgarian, and some Romanian gypsies are Muslims btw.) He went as far as demanding Gypsies be put into forced labor camps, a statement he retracted immediately after.
Although the party isn't actually demanding territory, it does talk about "ethnic Bulgaria", which to them includes all of Macedonia (they have a point here, in the Slavic parts), parts of Serbia, small parts of Northern Greece, the area around Edirne in Turkey, and the entire coastal strip in Romania. LMAO.
He has never publicly railed against Bulgaria joining the European Union (probably not a vote getter anyways), although he has commended the French and Dutch for voting no on the EU constitution.

[minionofmidas]

On Attaka:

-Racist comments against Turks and Roma (who make up 10% and 5% of the population, respectively. Most Bulgarian, and some Romanian gypsies are Muslims btw.) He went as far as demanding Gypsies be put into forced labor camps, a statement he retracted immediately after.

The best showing of Attaka was in the parts where there is a sizable Turkish minority. That part of the program did it quite well then.

Do you have a map? Both of the results and the distribution of minorities?

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Yeah, they tried their hand at racism to save their dieing regime.

[minionofmidas]

That doesn't seem to include Roma.

[minionofmidas]

Table, not a map.


EDIT: Sheet, wrong URL. Or rather, the URL doesn't change when you scroll down til you get to Census 2001 results, click there, and pick one of the religion, ethnicity, or mother tongue tables. (They're slight differences in the ethnicity and mother tongue results, due largely to some Roma speaking Bulgarian rather than Romani.)

[minionofmidas]

And here's a regional breakdown of election results

[minionofmidas]

Stanishev elected PM, leading Socialist-Turk minority coalition.
After failing to win a first round of balloting, he won a second round 120-119 with one MP not voting. His coalition has the steady support of 116 MPs. Talks about a coalition with the Simeonists had broken down about a week ago.

[minionofmidas]

Getting weirder...apparently in Bulgaria, the parliament has to do an up-or-down vote on the list of ministers submitted by the PM. And he lost that 119-120 (that one opposition MP who's never voting is apparently in hospital waiting to die). So, PM Stanishev resigned after one day in office. What happens next is totally up in the air. Might well be new elections.

[minionofmidas]

Yes. Socialist, Simeonites and Turks have settled on a grand coalition after all. Stanishev is PM.

[minionofmidas]

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.)