Living in a state of emergency must be the best thing that has happened to Sofia in decades.
 
Ever since Prime Minister Sergei Stanishev declared a state of emergency in Sofia, the city’s refuse bins have never looked so empty and clean.
 
A crisis headquarters was set up, and the state took control over the city's refuse collection; the Cabinet cited Sofia mayor Boiko Borissov’s alleged inability to organise proper refuse collection.

Borissov, who happens to be Stanishev’s most fearsome opponent in Bulgaria's national parliamentary elections scheduled to be held in less than three months, naturally was against the idea and went to court to appeal against Stanishev’s order to declare a state of emergency.
 
Borissov had a point, because the city hall actually did hire a number of companies to clean the city, and large parts of it were cleaned to a good standard. Others, mainly the centre of he city, had problems in getting refuse collected on time, but the situation was far from being "a danger to people’s health," as Stanishev claimed that it was.    
 
Things were not even close to 2005 when in July (with temperatures reaching 25-30 degrees) the city was left covered with refuse for more than a week after the city dump site was blockaded by protesters.
 
Stanishev did not at the time see that as sufficient reason to declare a state of emergency, and left the city to deal with the issue alone.  Another difference was that Borissov was not the mayor back then, and at the time his party was not poised to win the biggest share of seats in the elections for Parliament - as it is in 2009.
 
With the law in his hands, Stanishev gave the crisis headquaters carte blanche about hiring refuse companies. So it began; refuse bins being emptied round the clock, streets being cleaned on a daily basis, to the excitement of Sofians who were happy to see such a large-scale cleaning operation for the first time in 20 years.  
 
While this was happening, few media actually asked the question why people living in Plovdiv, Varna, Bourgas and, for that matter, Bozhentsi village, should pay millions of leva so that Stanishev can discredit Borissov as a leader in the light of the upcoming elections.
 
The money for the emergency cleaning of Sofia comes from the state budget, which gets filled with money from everyone in Bulgaria, not just Sofia.  
 
The explanation that Stanishev has come to "help Sofia" sounds a bit cynical given that he has refused to do so several times over the years, despite Borissov’s official requests for Government funding in coping with the refuse problems that Borissov has inherited.
 
Maybe it was because there were no elections at that time.
 
In the meantime, Sofians seems rather happy with the situation and why should they not be?
 
Refuse bins have never been emptied this often before. Maybe it has to do with the way the crisis headquarters actually pays refuse companies - based not on the time they have spent on the streets but on the amount of refuse they have collected. The more the merrier!
 
And here comes an interesting question. What will happen after all the refuse bins are emptied and cleaned and the crisis headquarters has nothing further to do?
 
Will Stanishev reinstate Sofia municipality as the authority responsible for organising refuse collection in the city? It was because of the city hall’s actions that the state of emergency was declared in the first place.
 
There is no doubt that the city hall will keep operating the way that it was before the crisis was declared by the Government. This, according to Stanishev’s criteria for a crisis situation, would inevitably lead to a new state of emergency and more budget money thrown on Sofia’s streets.
 
Who knows, maybe if both Stanishev and Borissov end up in one ruling coalition after the elections, things would be different. Then we can all declare a state of emergency in Bulgaria.
That way, at least everyone in the country, not just Sofians, can feel the benefits of living in a state of emergency.