Bulgaria: Swift Early Response by the Executive, Followed by a Complete Governance Failure

Abstract

Bulgaria’s initial response to the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic was rapid and decisive. The restrictive measures—proposed and implemented by the central executive—generated little political opposition and were tolerated—if not liked—by the general public. The measures worked to limit the spread of COVID-19, and Bulgaria emerged relatively unscarred by the first wave. As the summer of 2020 approached, however, the country was lulled into complacency, most measures were relaxed, and compliance with the remaining ones dropped. All this led to a very sharp increase in the number of infections, hospitalizations and, ultimately, deaths in the autumn of 2020. A new and comprehensive lockdown was installed in November 2020, but the delayed response worked only slowly to halt the spread of the pandemic. The restrictions were gradually lifted in February 2021, but in late March they had to be re-introduced, in the midst of growing public discontent and accusations of governance chaos. Meanwhile, the country was engulfed in a political crisis. The real disaster, however, came with the vaccination campaign which progressed very slowly mainly because of a vaccine-sceptical population. Pathologically low public trust in government and authorities more generally prepared the ground for this failure.