2001 – A YEAR OF UNPREDICTABLE CHANGES FOR BULGARIA

Views on BG | January 1, 2002, Tuesday // 00:00

BY Martina Iovcheva

The first year from the new century turned out to be a year of hardly to predict changes for Bulgaria. Bulgarians elected a new Parliament, Government and President in 2001. The results from both the General elections and the Presidential elections were surprising to everybody – voters, politicians and sociologists.

In 2001, Bulgaria turned out to be in a more or less unique political situation – the Bulgarian King became Prime Minister Saxe-Coburg and headed a right-wing government. Quite unexpectedly, the Bulgarians elected former Socialist leader to be their new left-wing President.

4,6 million voters out of 6,5 million cast their votes to elect the 39th Bulgarian National Assembly in June. 120 seats were taken by the newly established political organization Simeon II National Movement, 51 – by the United Democratic Forces and 21 – by the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. The United Democratic Forces, which was in office until June suffered a huge unexpected for the party defeat. 820,996 people supported the United Democratic Forces, down from 2,223,714 in 1997.

The November Presidential elections came out as even bigger surprise: incumbent President Stoyanov had a considerable lead according to the polls, still in the night of November 18, results showed that the new Bulgarian President will be former Socialist leader Georgi Parvanov. Immediately after his election, Parvanov pointed out that his main foreign policy priority will be EU and NATO membership.

On October 8, the UN General Assembly elected Bulgaria as a non-permanent member of the Security Council of the East-European regional group, starting from January 1, 2002 until December 31, 2003. More than 120 countries voted in favor of Bulgaria`s joining the UN Security Council.

The session of the Bulgarian National Assembly began with one-minute silence that honored the memory of the victims of the terrorist attack in the United States on September 12. The Bulgarian National Assembly condemned sharply and categorically the terrorist acts and expressed the opinion that the assaults were an open aggression against modern civilization. On November 15, the Bulgarian President Petur Stoyanov ratified with a decree the agreement between Bulgaria and the United States on US troops overflight, transit passage and stay on Bulgarian territory within the framework of the anti-terrorist campaign “Enduring Freedom.” US aircraft were hosted by Burgas airport where the first American temporary base was set up in connection with the “Endurable Freedom” operation in Afghanistan. 150 U.S. military personnel was based in “Sarafovo” base to maintain the operation.

The first year of the new century ended with a tragedy. Bulgaria declared national mourning on December 23, a day before Christmas Eve. Tragic event in the Sofia night club Indigo shattered the entire country. Six girls and a boy aged between 11 and 15 died late on December 21 in a stampede on an icy stairway as hundreds of youngsters tried to get into a Christmas party at the Club Indigo. Dozen of teenagers were injured.


MORE on Bulgaria in 2001– Read in For the Record section at novinite.com

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