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Democracy Updates
As ethnic divisions ease in the Balkans, political parties across the spectrum are finding the need for new approaches that focus on thoughtful policy debate rather than personality and ethnicity. Young leaders in particular will play an important role in these changes.
In partnership with the VMRO-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity (VMRO-DPMNE), NDI co-hosted a meeting Feb. 5-7 of 35 young leaders from center-right Balkan political parties. At the meeting in Skopje, Macedonia, participants focused on how to attract youth to conservative values in the 21st century as well as how to tackle a wide range of issues, including those not traditionally seen as conservative.
In-Country Perspectives
The largest ethnic minority in Central and Eastern Europe, Roma continue to face discrimination and marginalization due to poverty, social ills and, in many cases, physical isolation. They are significantly underrepresented in mainstream political parties, hold few elected offices and have been unable to use political channels to solve many economic and social problems that affect their communities. NDI has been working with local candidates and political parties throughout the region in an effort to help Roma secure more equal political representation at all levels of government.
Bulgaria
Bulgaria’s accession to the European Union (EU) in 2007 validated the country’s impressive democratic advances in the 17 years since the fall of communism. Bulgaria has built a competitive multiparty system with an increasingly strong civil society, however, continued reform ensuring judicial independence and combating organized crime and its alleged infiltration of government is needed to consolidate the young democracy. The EU’s unprecedented sanction of Bulgaria underscores the gravity of these problems.
For their part, Bulgaria’s citizens are disillusioned, as measured by voter turnout rates and public confidence in governing bodies. It falls to the country’s political parties, particularly the governing Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), to lead reform efforts that build public confidence in governing institutions and the political process. Voters will have their say in the 2009 parliamentary elections, when the BSP faces a new center-right challenger, the Citizens for the European Development of Bulgaria (GERB).
NDI’s work in Bulgaria has focused on fair elections and informed voting, constituent outreach by members of parliament and, more recently, promoting the inclusion of women and Roma in the political process to orient policymaking around the needs of these two large constituencies.
Women’s Political Participation
Roma Political Participation
Other Programs
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