Corruption and Poverty Feed Rebellion in Bulgaria

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Petar Beron calculates his monthly salary in loaves of bread.

Beron, curator of one of southern Europe’s largest natural history museums, has seen the value of his pay plummet from $200 a month last year to about $30 a month now.

“We buy only food,” Beron said in an office cluttered with books, papers, a computer and a microscope. “I pay some electricity and heating. Clothes are a thing of the past.”

With his salary, hardly commensurate with his 34 years of experience and fluency in five languages, Beron can afford three small loaves of bread a day. And he is better off than most Bulgarians.

The inflation-driven impoverishment of Bulgaria’s middle class, the utter inefficiency and corruption of its Socialist authorities, the increasingly hopeless future--all have combined in recent days to send tens of thousands of once-apathetic Bulgarians into the streets of major cities to demand a new government.

Every afternoon, students, opposition activists and pensioners march through Sofia, the capital, and elsewhere chanting “Victory!” and waving white-green-and-red Bulgarian flags and signs that say “I am hungry.”

They have rallied outside Sofia’s gold-domed Alexander Nevsky Cathedral every day since Jan. 6. The protest here turned violent Jan. 10, when groups of demonstrators stormed the parliament building, seat of Socialist power, and more than 200 were beaten by police.

The uprising in Bulgaria follows similar protests in neighboring Yugoslavia, and both appear to be part of a trend demanding reform in the troubled Balkans--where Romanians unseated their formerly Communist rulers two months ago.

The air of change is seen by some as a delayed catch-up by this part of Eastern Europe with the revolution that swept Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany and Hungary in 1989. Unlike those countries, the Balkan nations have generally kept the Communists in power.

While the fight in the Yugoslav republic of Serbia is largely political, in Bulgaria it is chiefly economic. Misery, not tyranny, is the motivation.

The failure of the ruling Socialist Party to reform the economy has plunged the country into disaster. Inflation is running at more than 300% annually, the national currency has collapsed, and Bulgaria is in danger of defaulting on its $10-billion foreign debt. The average monthly wage of about $20 is the smallest anywhere in Europe except for war-ravaged Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Hospitals can no longer afford medicines and are turning patients away. Schools can’t heat their classrooms. Retired people can’t afford food. Bulgaria, once one of the region’s most comfortable and best-educated Soviet satellites, is approaching Third World status.

“It is theoretically impossible to make ends meet in these conditions,” Beron said. “You might as well go straight to your funeral. But even to die is not so cheap anymore.” Indeed, the price for cemetery plots has quintupled since last year, he said.

This calamitous panorama forced the government of Socialist Prime Minister Zhan Videnov to resign last month, but no replacement has been chosen. Instead, the center-right opposition coalition that is leading the street demonstrations is demanding early elections.

The Socialists have agreed in principle to hold elections ahead of the December 1998 schedule, but they want to govern for the rest of this year. The opposition coalition, the Union of Democratic Forces (UDF), wants elections in May and an interim government of specialists to guide Bulgaria out of its economic rot. Locked in an increasingly tense power struggle, the two political forces continued to negotiate late last week.

“If the Socialists continue in power, they will rule with hyperinflation, with the international community refusing to help them, and with police having to guard parliament because the street protests will grow bigger and bigger every day and the country will be shaken by strikes,” UDF Deputy Chairman Vassil Gotsev said in an interview. “I cannot see them ruling in such a situation of chaos.”

Most critical to Bulgaria now is the formation of a currency board, a proposal of the International Monetary Fund to stabilize the nose-diving national money. Such a board is widely seen as the essential first step in salvaging the economy, but the IMF is thought to be reluctant to deal with a provisional or lame-duck government.

The UDF scored an overwhelming victory in presidential elections Nov. 3. The winner, Petar Stoyanov, formally took office Wednesday. But the presidency is largely ceremonial. Real power rests with the prime minister and the parliament, which is controlled by the Socialist Party--the former Communist Party, renamed following the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall.

Under the highly unpopular Videnov, the Socialist government resisted implementing economic reforms. Faced with financial doom, it flirted with a handful of measures last summer and autumn, placing a quarter of its scandal-ridden, insolvent banks in receivership and a handful of state-owned enterprises on the auction block. But never fully committed to the program, the government soon abandoned it.

The economy went into a tailspin. Mafia-style crime soared. And corruption that allowed powerful financial groups around Videnov to profit from shady business deals depleted national coffers.

One such questionable deal let business people sell off grain at huge profits, leaving Bulgaria without reserves to feed livestock or make bread. For the first time in its history, the country that was once a breadbasket has been forced to import grain to stave off bread shortages this winter.

As prices for other foods, electricity and gasoline more than tripled, the national currency, the lev, crashed. It was valued at 70 to the dollar a year ago and about 200 three months ago; today the exchange rate is about 650 to the dollar.

“People have become so desperate, and it is totally unnecessary, totally the fault of this government’s mismanagement and corruption,” said a Western official. “Now the worst thing is that they have lost hope that things can get better. These demonstrations are an act of despair. People feel they have nothing to lose.”

In Sofia, several soup kitchens opened in December, primarily to help pensioners whose monthly stipends have shrunk to less than $10 a month. A small loaf of bread costs 30 cents; a pound of cheese is about $1.

Inside the cavernous sanctuary of St. Paraskieva Church last week, dozens of elderly people wrapped in old coats pushed their way toward the front of a line, clamoring for a cup of soup and a slice of bread. For most, it was the only thing they would eat all day.

“There are too many old people who have no money and are starving,” said the social worker in charge, Svetanka Yurdanova. “They are freezing too, because they can’t pay for heat.”

At the square in front of the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral, thousands gathered the other day for another rally.

Beron, the museum curator, said that while the demonstrations give people focus, they also create unrealistic expectations.

“We do not expect much better even if the UDF does come to power,” said the bearded 58-year-old. “It will be a long time before any improvement can be seen. The economy is almost beyond the point of recovery.”

Eighteen-year-old Gergana Tomova, one of the many enthusiastic students at the rally, eagerly said: “I think it’s important for young people to be here so that the Communists can see where today’s youth is.” But when she was asked about the future, her face darkened.

“I don’t have very much faith in the future. Regardless of which government we have, I will try very hard to get out of Bulgaria.”