The Economist: Bulgaria continues to fall into the group of "defective democracies" Bulgaria continues to deteriorate and has already moved to the bottom half of the "defective democracies" category.

The Economist Intelligence Unit explains this in its annual ranking of the state of democracy in the world in 2020.

The reason is mainly in the concern for the independence of the judiciary and the freedom of the media, as stated in the September Rule of Law Report by the European Commission. It also says that "the appointment of a prosecutor general who is allegedly linked to the government has provoked mass anti-government protests across the country ".

Comments on the EIU for Bulgaria in the last two years are increasingly worrying, because last year the conclusion was that democracy stopped progressing 3 years ago, and in 2019 there was a finding that for 12 years in practice the democratic development of the country is in stagnation. In the world ranking, Bulgaria is ranked 52nd after Suriname and ahead of India.

 This is not the worst position for a country in the European Union - followed by Hungary (shares position 55 with the Philippines), Croatia (shares 59th place with Ghana) and Romania (62).

 In the company of imperfect and "hybrid" countries No former communist country in Eastern Europe is outside the group of democracies with imperfections, but this year the analyst group of the Economist magazine adds France and Portugal, for example.

 Bulgaria is in a region with many regimes that The Economist defines as hybrids between authoritarianism and democracy - Northern Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey (which is otherwise among the few in Europe to improve its position - to 104th in the world. ).

Viewed in the context of Central and Eastern Europe, the assessment of the electoral process in Bulgaria is the same as that of Poland (9.17 units out of a maximum of 10). The same goes for the functioning of the government (5.71), but by this criterion two of the following countries are better, although they are behind in the overall ranking - Hungary (6.43), Croatia (6.07), Romania (5.36), Serbia (5.36), Albania (5.36). The participation of Bulgarians in political life - perhaps due to the long protests - is estimated at 7.22 units of the index, and only Slovenia and Ukraine have such a high indicator last year.

 For "political culture", however, the indicator is 4.38, while Poland in the seventh position, is 5.63, and in Hungary, which is behind us - 6.25. In the "Political Freedoms" category, the score is 7.06 units, but it is exactly the same in Northern Macedonia and Serbia, and 7.35 in Albania./Economist

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