In Bulgaria, figures shaped by the communist regime—including former party elites, KGB affiliates, and individuals linked to criminal organizations—continue to dominate politics, media, and business. This chapter exposes a political reality unimaginable in Japan through concrete examples.

Could such a person ever become the leader of a political party in Japan?
2016-11-06
The following is a continuation of the previous chapter.
All emphasis in the text except for the headings is mine.
In present-day Bulgaria, figures like Bokova are not rare, and some politicians even have connections to criminal organizations.
In 2001, a coalition government led by former King Simeon II (Simeon Saxe-Coburg-Gotha) was established, and the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha administration was launched.
The finance minister at that time, Milen Velchev, also had a father who was a prominent diplomat during the Zhivkov era, and his grandfather was an influential member of the Communist Party Politburo.
While serving as foreign minister, Velchev was photographed yachting with a senior member of the most powerful mafia in Bulgaria, which became a major scandal.
That mafia leader was shot dead several years later.
Meanwhile, Dimitar Ivanov, now a major figure in the Bulgarian media world and a university professor, was the last head of the Bulgarian KGB, notorious for assaulting, imprisoning, and persecuting dissidents during the communist regime, yet he has never been prosecuted and remains free to this day.
This may be difficult for Japanese people to understand, but most politicians occupying key posts in the current Bulgarian government are former Communist Party members.
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov had a father who was a senior official in the Ministry of Interior under the communist regime.
Borisov himself maintained his status as a Communist Party member even during the transition from communism to socialism after the collapse of Zhivkov’s dictatorship.
In 1991, he became a bodyguard for Zhivkov, and later also served as a bodyguard for Simeon II.
His career as a bodyguard paved the way for Borisov’s subsequent rise to power.
Bulgarian President Rosen Plevneliev held a key post in the Communist Youth League of a certain city during the communist era.
His father was one of the main figures promoting propaganda activities in the Communist Party committee of the same city.
The party supported by the Turkish minority, the “Movement for Rights and Freedoms,” was until recently led by Ahmed Dogan, a Turkish-Bulgarian who was a university classmate of the author.
Dogan was arrested in the mid-1980s as a member of a Turkish terrorist organization and for involvement in incidents in which several people were killed.
I still remember those events vividly.
He served several years in prison but was released after the collapse of the Zhivkov regime.
Documents later made public revealed that Dogan had been an agent (operative) of the Bulgarian KGB.
Could such a person ever become the leader of a political party in Japan?
In Bulgaria, such dubious figures have succeeded in media and business.
Bokova is one of these people as well.