Corruption will continue

You either need to change politics itself or the people in it, says political philosopher Rumen Dimitrov. In his homeland Bulgaria they do the latter, writes the left-liberal daily Frankfurter Rundschau: "The new government under the Rambo figure of Boyko Borisov consists of 'new, untainted' figures. A familiar pattern: in Bulgaria anyone who has been on the political scene for a long time is compromised. The only people who aren't compromised are those who we can be certain do not understand anything about politics. It's a Catch 22 situation: Anyone who wants to achieve anything must have done a deal with dubious networks. But anyone who refuses to do so won't achieve anything. Bulgaria's accession to the EU put wind into the sails of the country's anti-corruption campaigners. But that in itself isn't enough: Brussel makes the rules but doesn't show how to put them into practice. Without the classic political virtues of cunning and shrewdness it won't work. Before 'dirty' politics makes room for moral purity, the hour of the strong man will come. And even then there will still be corruption. You just won't hear about it any more."

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