The Romanian and Bulgarian political scene after 1989

Although Romania and Bulgaria emerged from communism and in the first decade of their independence their political scenes were very similar, in the next years they went into different directions. While in Romania we observe stable parties led by experienced politicians with clear background (Ponta, although young, is a well-known figure of PSD and has strong family connections there), in Bulgaria new parties emerged “from scratch” and took the power. Despite this difference, all the governments in both countries in the last decade led a similar policy, aiming for the EU integration as their highest priority.