Doganisation and Galevisation

Two terms that emerged during Bulgaria’s recent elections.

“Two neologisms became the code-words that were rallying cries for anger, frustration and criticism in some quarters as Bulgaria prepared to go to the polls in the July 5 2009 elections for a new National Assembly,” wrote Clive Leviev-Sawyer in The Sofia Echo. These words were “Doganisation” and “Galevisation”:

The first, for Ahmed Dogan, leader of the Movement for Rights and Freedoms – the party led and supported mainly by Bulgarians of ethnic Turkish descent – came to symbolise what nationalists see as undue influence of Turks in Bulgaria’s politics, and moreover, alleged underhand dealings in the intersection where business and politics meet.

In 2005, Dogan, whose party was a partner in the leading coalition, sparked outrage when he appeared, to some, to trivialize the issue of corruption in Bulgarian politics by suggesting there was nothing untoward about theinfluence of “rings of companies” over political parties. In June 2009, Dogan prompted further anger when he seemed to undermine the authority of the Bulgarian Parliament by stating:

“The power is concentrated in me, not in your MP who can not solve problems but only adopt laws. … I am the instrument of power, who distributes the bits of financing in the state. MPs don’t have power.”

Leviev-Sawyer argued:

It has not been difficult for ultra-nationalists and others to portray Dogan as representing everything from corruption to oppression – and hence the “Doganisation” concept.

Leviev-Sawyer continued:

The “Doganisation” slur may resonate only in certain Bulgarian domestic circles, but another neologism guaranteed to stir up ire both at home and abroad is “Galevisation.”

Named for the Galevi brothers, a duo of business people facing criminal charges who have taken advantage of the law providing temporary immunity from prosecution of election candidates, “Galevisation” has stirred up emotions in Bulgaria and drawn negative comments from foreign media.

Even though the immunity is only temporary … the phenomenon has been perceived as symbolic of the role of people allegedly involved in shady business dealings in Bulgaria’s public life.

The Galevi brothers were not alone in allegedly exploiting this loophole. As Matthew Brunwasser explained in The Times:

The candidates in the election included a half-dozen defendants facing serious criminal charges, including embezzlement, the trafficking of women and the distribution of narcotics. Under a Bulgarian law originally designed to protect candidates from government harassment, candidates have the same immunity as elected deputies. The courts, therefore, released criminal defendants so they could campaign.

In an article headlined “Seven scandals from Bulgaria,” Reuters reported that Transparency International had rated Bulgaria the most corrupt European Union nation:

Despite numerous pledges, Sofia has not convicted a single senior official of graft and has sent to jail only one crime boss since the end of communism in 1989.