On June 12, Samaras — the leader of Greece's conservative New Democracy party — decided to close public broadcaster ERT, which runs three domestic television channels, four national radio stations, several regional radio stations and an external service (Voice of Greece). ERT costs Greece some 300 million euros ($400 million) per year and has some 2,700 workers. According to the prime minister, the plan was to cut the broadcaster's staff by half and launch a new broadcaster before the end of the summer.
Greece's lenders (the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund) did not particularly push the decision, but Samaras framed it in the context of the austerity measures that Athens has applied since it received its first international bailout in 2010. The announcement led to protests by ERT workers, and Greek unions held a strike on June 13. Moreover, Samaras' coalition partners — the center-left Panhellenic Socialist Movement and the left-wing Democratic Left — immediately criticized the measure and threatened to leave the government.
The Greeks have an ambiguous relationship with ERT. Before the crisis, they saw the public broadcaster as an expensive and inefficient institution in which wages were too high and nepotism was common. Yet the abrupt decision to close it received a negative response, especially since Samaras made it without consulting his partners in government. Leaders of the three parties of the ruling coalition will meet June 17 in Athens to find a solution to the crisis. While rumors about early elections are growing, that outcome seems unlikely in the short term.
The current coalition government was formed in June 2012, after two traumatic and inconclusive elections. The coalition is fragile, and none of the three parties are interested in having early elections, especially when the popularity of the main opposition party — the anti-establishment Coalition of the Radical Left, commonly known by its Greek acronym, Syriza — is on the rise.
Bulgaria is experiencing a similar crisis. Earlier this year, a series of protests against the rising costs of energy and austerity measures implemented by Sofia led to the early resignation of the conservative government of former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov. Bulgaria held early elections May 12, which led to a fragmented parliament. Although Borisov's Citizens for a European Development of Bulgaria party won, it failed to form a government. The Socialist Party, which came in second, formed a coalition with the Movement for Rights and Freedoms — a party that represents Bulgaria's ethnic Turkish minority — and former Finance Minister Plamen Oresharski was appointed prime minister.
As the head of a fragile government, Oresharski has faced problems since his first day in office. These difficulties reached a peak after he appointed lawmaker and media mogul Delyan Peevski as the head of the National Security Agency on June 14. In response, nongovernmental organizations and media denounced the appointment, citing a conflict of interest because Peevski has investments in several of Bulgaria's television and radio stations, as well as newspapers. Over the weekend, between 10,000 and 15,000 people protested in Sofia, demanding Peevski's and Oresharski's resignations. On June 17, Oresharski accepted Peevski's resignation but said that he would not resign as prime minister.
The current political turmoil in Bulgaria is just the first sign of trouble ahead. The coalition government controls only 120 of the 240 seats of Bulgaria's National Assembly. This means that any internal division could leave the government in the minority, and Oresharski's Cabinet will probably need external support to survive (most likely from far-right party Ataka). Measured in per capita terms, Bulgaria is the poorest country in the European Union and is often criticized for pervasive corruption and ineffectiveness in absorbing EU funds. According to the National Statistics Institute, unemployment was 13.8 percent in the first quarter of 2013, and Social Policy and Labor Minister Hasan Ademov has said it will reach 15 percent by the end of the year. As a result, social unrest is likely to remain strong in the country.
The combination of economic crisis and political protests in Greece and Bulgaria has created great social unrest and political fragility. Both governments are likely to survive for now, but this does not mean that the situation in either country will be stable in the long term.
