(ANSA-AFP) - SOFIA, MAR 31 - When Bulgarians took to the
streets last summer demanding the resignation of conservative
Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, analysts thought that after almost
a decade in the job his time was up. In sweeping and at times
violent protests that lasted months, thousands came out to
accuse the embattled 61-year-old former firefighter of
protecting oligarchs and meddling in the judiciary. Added to
that was a slew of other troubles: there was a rift in Borisov's
GERB party after his right-hand man left over a corruption
scandal and an exiled gambling mogul claimed that Borisov's
government had solicited bribes from him. To cap it all,
embarrassing pictures emerged of the prime minister asleep with
a handgun on his nightstand, and others -- which Borisov said
were doctored -- purported to show bundles of 500-euro notes
crammed into his bedside table. But after initially suggesting
he wouldn't run in upcoming general elections on April 4,
Borisov has remained at the helm of his conservative GERB party
and simply sat tight through the crises. The strategy seems to
have paid off, with GERB on track to emerge as the single
biggest party. And after almost 10 years in the job, Borisov is
now just weeks away from becoming Bulgaria's longest serving
prime minister. "If we had gone to early elections, there would
have been a common front against GERB and Borisov would have
been swept away," Gallup international analyst Parvan Simeonov
commented recently. (ANSA-AFP).
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