The recent anti-Roma protests throughout Bulgaria and in particular in the capital, Sofia, saw the familiar spectre of an underlying growing support for right wing political parties and social movements since the fall of Communism rear its head again in Eastern Europe. However, to explain these protests on an outbreak of racist and nationalist feeling would not only be tarring all protesters with the same tainted brush, but would also dramatically oversimplify the issue and ignore the desperately poor region’s crippling and endemic issues of unemployment, organised crime and corruption.
The unrest had originally been sparked following the death of a young man who was hit by a van driven by relatives of infamous Roma clan leader “King Kiro,” in the southern village of Katunitsa. King or Tsar Kiro, whose real name is Kiril Rashkov, has terrorised the village where the accident took place for years, acting as if he were untouchable by grabbing land and making threats at will. The resentment for Katunitsa within the region is understandably high, in a country where the average wage is just US$485 a month, Rashkov owns fashionable cars, several luxury houses and a mansion with its own private zoo. However, what started out as an escalation of an on-going local dispute, was soon hijacked by nationalist groups as an issue of race, much to the dismay of the villagers who had originally protested over the incident.
During the unrest, protesters took to the streets to vent their anger at corruption and organised crime, which they declared were intrinsically linked to the Roma or gypsy ethnic minority. Aside from the main protest in the capital there were a number of incidents of unrest prior to the Sofia march, with mini-rallies involving chanting of anti-minority and even Nazi slogans, as well as the detention of several hundred nationalist demonstrators armed with knives and batons who were attempting to infiltrate Roma areas, in particular, Varna in the east. It is important to point out, however, that this hardline right-wing feeling is perpetuated mainly football “ultras” (football hooligans, who apart from their fanatical support, are often influenced by political ideologies and views on race) who are often at the centre of violent disturbances in southeast Europe.
The Roma make up around 9% of Bulgaria’s 7.4 million population and their communities tend to be poorly integrated and often have tense relations with their neighbours. This anti-Roma feeling is by no means a new phenomenon and as is commonly the case, the Roma people are an easy target for frustrations felt by the Bulgarian people due to their socio-economic status, often living in poor housing on the edge of big cities, with high levels of unemployment and a general perception that they are all living off benefits, or those who are prospering are engaging in criminal activities. This opinion however is not limited to the far right and is widely shared among the Bulgarian middle classes.
In order to add some context to the current climate in Bulgaria, which does by no means excuse, but does begin to explain some of the frustration leading to the negative feeling, Bulgaria remains the EU’s poorest country, despite hope that their entrance into the European Union in January 2007 would help to ease some of their issues. A recent letter to the Bulgarian Government from the European Commission pointed out that only 1% of EU regional aid to the region had reached its intended destination. This means that EU funded projects are becoming increasingly few and far between and foreign investment is understandably hard to come by.
The disturbances led Prime Minister, Boyko Borisov and President Parvanov, to call a meeting of the national security council, and also saw Paranov appeal to the media and politicians to “put an end to the language of hatred pushed to the extreme”. Significantly, the unrest came just weeks before a national election on 23 October 2011, and saw Volen Siderov, the leader of the far-right Ataka party, capitalising on the nationalist sentiment by addressing crowds of protesters. The UN was quick to condemn the protests and declared that Bulgarian political leaders must take a tough line and ensure minority communities were appropriately protected amid the continuing unrest.
Commentators suggest that the public anger at endemic corruption, a widening gap between rich and poor, and the weakness of the justice system are all to blame for people turning against minority communities. This is a common process worldwide as is a genuine grievance being hijacked and subverted by those who wish to use it for their own gains. One only needs to look at the shooting of London resident, Mark Duggan, in early August 2011 and the ensuing riots to see that this is a common phenomenon. However, the protests themselves must be put into perspective, despite being relatively widespread, they were sporadic to say the least and at most only attracted numbers of around 2,000. What is important, however, is that the continued disillusion with the current levels of corruption and success of organised criminals, which will be playing into the hands of far right groups keen to recruit more members. Therefore, one of the biggest concerns is the impact this could have on the forthcoming elections, which could see more extreme parties winning an increasing proportion of the vote. This outcome, however, is by no means a certainty and it should be pointed out that any increase of right-wing parties would not necessarily be a reflection of people’s racial prejudices, but an indication of an increasingly frustrated and alienated public who are turning to extremes due to a feeling that something must change.
