Tomorrow Bulgaria will have elections:

Nearly six decades after Simeon II, Bulgaria’s 9-year-old child-king, was removed by the Communists, their heirs are again poised to oust him from power. The opposition Socialist Party is leading opinion polls ahead of the June 25 general election and is likely to defeat Prime Minister Simeon Saxcoburggotski.

Actually I know a little bit about Bulgaria as I did some research into Bulgarian immigrants in Spain a couple of years back. My impression is that the Simeon regime is extraordinarily corrupt. Many Bulgarians have had to leave simply to send money home to their parents who can only survive with difficulty on the state pensions. Of course, one extract in the article did catch my eye:

Bulgaria’s demographic decline is also likely to favor the Socialists, who count heavily on the country’s 1.8 million pensioners for support. An estimated 700,000 mostly young people have left the country since the fall of communism in 1989 in hopes of a better life in the West

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