Bulgaria remains a semi-consolidated democracy, although there has been a slight deterioration of indicators , compared to last year. This is shown in the annual report on transition countries of the US-based NGO Freedom House.
Bulgaria has a reduced percentage of democracy in it – from 60% a year earlier to 58.93% (at 100% maximum) and the assessment for adherence to democratic values is 4.54 on a scale of 1 to 7, where 7 is the highest level of democratic progress. Last year, this indicator was 4.61.
The rating of the electoral process in the country has decreased for a year from 5.75 to 5.50, after the changes in the electoral framework have allowed the influence of specialized interests to increase and after the failure to address the issue of transparency and elections.
The rating of independent media has dropped from 3.75 to 3.50 amid continuing consolidation of the media sector, political interference in the public service broadcasters and harassment of critical journalists by prosecutors and government officials, Freedom House reported.
The American NGO generally reports a "stunning democratic collapse" in many of the 29 countries it studies from Central Europe to Central Asia. Bulgaria is ranked eighth, ahead of Estonia, Slovenia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Slovakia and Poland. Romania, Croatia, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro, Albania and Northern Macedonia have worse indicators.
Poland falls out of the group of consolidated democracies and becomes a semi-consolidated democracy, while Hungary, Serbia and Montenegro have completely left the category of democracies and become transitional / hybrid regimes. The report says EU member Hungary has suffered the biggest crash in 25 years since Freedom House published its report “Nations in Transition”.
