NICE SUITS

NICE SUITS

Fri, 12/21/2012 - 14:50

The journos accompanying Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov on his state visit to the United States were quick to note that on three different occasions he and President Obama sported similar attire.

boyko borisov barack obama.jpg

At an official dinner Michele Obama, as Borisov himself reported, inquired who Bulgaria's first lady was, because she was impressed by the good taste she showed.

In fact, Borisov told the pro-government TV7, it was a bodyguard, one Tsikov, who had suggested the prime minister changed suits because the one he had been wearing was crumpled. Borisov, himself a former bodyguard, said Tsikov was now begging not to hear the expression "first lady" for fear he would be the butt of jokes by his colleagues in the service.

Borisov's visit to the United States was widely used by the Bulgarian media to show what was represented as White House approval of GERB's policies at home. Unable or unwilling to differentiate between protocol platitudes and real policy statements, the pro-government media highlighted Obama's "endorsement" of Bulgaria as "America's closest ally in the region."

Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov reported that Barack Obama said he would be voting for GERB if he was Bulgarian. One commentator was quick to intone: "Whoever doesn't vote for GERB will be committing high treason."

Losing support at home over its inability to produce solutions to the ongoing economic crisis and its increasingly heavy-handed methods to suppress political dissent, the GERB establishment hopes to capitalise on the US "endorsement" to convince voters it is doing something meaningful.

Few if any media noted the similarities between what Obama told Borisov and what George W. Bush said to former Prime Minister Sergey Stanishev, now Borisov's arch enemy. Then Bush referred to Stanishev as "Mr Clean" and praised him for his fight against corruption and nepotism. According to GERB, Stanishev's three-party coalition was the most corrupt Bulgaria had ever seen.

Issue 75-76 Boyko Borisov

Commenting on www.vagabond.bg

Vagabond Media Ltd requires you to submit a valid email to comment on www.vagabond.bg to secure that you are not a bot or a spammer. Learn more on how the company manages your personal information on our Privacy Policy. By filling the comment form you declare that you will not use www.vagabond.bg for the purpose of violating the laws of the Republic of Bulgaria. When commenting on www.vagabond.bg please observe some simple rules. You must avoid sexually explicit language and racist, vulgar, religiously intolerant or obscene comments aiming to insult Vagabond Media Ltd, other companies, countries, nationalities, confessions or authors of postings and/or other comments. Do not post spam. Write in English. Unsolicited commercial messages, obscene postings and personal attacks will be removed without notice. The comments will be moderated and may take some time to appear on www.vagabond.bg.

0 comments

Add new comment

The content of this field is kept private and will not be shown publicly.

Restricted HTML

  • Allowed HTML tags: <a href hreflang> <em> <strong> <cite> <blockquote cite> <code> <ul type> <ol start type> <li> <dl> <dt> <dd> <h2 id> <h3 id> <h4 id> <h5 id> <h6 id>
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.

Discover More

three generations monument
'DEFILING' ABANDONED PILE OF STONES
Perushtitsa, now a small and offbeat town rarely visited by tourists, is known to every Bulgarian as the sight of a massacre in the failed April 1876 Uprising against the Ottomans.

gabrovo carnival
KOSTYA KOPEYKIN'S FOUNDATION KICKS OFF
Though Dead Souls used to be on the national school curriculum, few latterday Bulgarians, and possibly even fewer English speakers, have actually read it, so here is a short synopsis.

buzludzha night.jpg
BUZLUDZHA LIGHTS UP AGAIN
The Flying Saucer, which in recent years has become one of the Top 10 world monuments for urbex, or dark tourism, was constructed in the early 1980s. It was designed to celebrate the Bulgarian Communist Party, in control of this country from 1944 to 1989.

lz airplane
FLYING LOW
In early June a small plane flew into Bulgarian airspace from the northwest and landed at what used to be a commercial airport near Vidin. Apparently, the aircraft refuelled.