Anti-graft agenda key for Bulgaria's new PM

BULGARIA’S PRIME minister-designate says the country must strike hard at high-level corruption within six months to restore the flagging faith of the European Union.

Bodyguard-turned-politician Boyko Borisov delivered a stern pep talk to Bulgaria’s top prosecutors just days after his Gerb party secured a landslide general election victory. The warning came on the back of widespread anger with the ruling Socialists’ dismal record on graft and organised crime.

The EU froze more than €500 million in aid to Bulgaria last year as punishment for its failure to fight corruption. The country has jailed only one mafia boss and not a single senior politician for graft since 1989. Domestic and international frustration with Bulgaria was fuelled during the election campaign, when several alleged criminals won temporary immunity from prosecution and release from custody by running for parliament. None of them won a seat in the ballot.

“Everyone who has broken, is breaking or plans to break the law will be punished . . . Once people see that every offender gets punished, they’ll stop stealing,” said Mr Borisov, a former fireman and karate expert nicknamed “Batman” by compatriots for his professed crime-fighting zeal.

“It rests on us as a government to restore the trust of Brussels and restore the inflows of EU funds. It rests on the prosecutors to end the criticism about the judicial system . . . In six months, the trust should be confirmed both in Brussels and in Bulgaria.”

Mr Borisov (50) told his chosen interior minister Tsvetan Tsvetanov and chief prosecutor Boris Velchev that failure to show results would not be tolerated.

“For me, every minute’s delay in the prosecution’s work is wrongis . . . unacceptable,” he said. “If we do not live up to the expectations of the people and do our job, they will not keep us here – neither me, nor you.”

After securing 116 seats in the 240-seat parliament, Gerb is in talks to form a ruling alliance with a right-wing group called the Blue Coalition.

In neighbouring Romania, judges halted court proceedings nationwide for three hours yesterday to protest government plans to cut bonuses. The country’s appeals court ruled yesterday that the cutbacks were illegal.