“According to Bulgarian analyst Ivan Krastev, Bulgaria had the big hope 20 years ago that it might become like Greece. That is to say, moderately democratic, but moderately corrupt,” begins The Economist article. “Now, they [analysts] hope that Greece may become like Bulgaria: poor, but financially disciplined and not making too big of a mess for others,” continues the editor.
The journalist compares Bulgaria’s unemployment rates to Greece’s and finds that they are half the levels of Greece and Serbia. Despite the fact that more than two-thirds of them expect the Bulgarian economy to stay the same or deteriorate in the next 12 months, former immigrants of Bulgarian descent have returned to their country after losing their jobs in host countries such as Greece and Spain, which face financial problems.
Vassil Vassiliev, a Bulgarian businessman, comments that his fellow countrymen are nervous due to their past experience. “Whatever happens in western Europe, comes here a year or two later,” he says, suggesting that when a union faces problems, they could easily affect other members of the union as well, like a domino effect.
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