The Bulgarian Election had just occurred a few days ago. 85% of eligible voters participated in the first free election. The PEP candidate, Oleg Tura, won by 65% of the votes.
The Communists got the lowest percentage of votes - 4%. The Communists, still clearly remembering the days when they were the only party in power, were horribly bitter. They have scrounged up whatever support they could get and began causing insurgencies, each small and relatively isolated from the other territorially.
Some people reported to the authorities that during the last week leading up to Election Day, Communists were beating people in the villages to try and force them to vote Communist. Most of the victims of the beatings either abstained or, to spite their former oppressors, voted for the other parties.
Upon hearing of this, President Tura immediately upon inauguration declared that the Bulgarian Communist Party (BCP) be outlawed. As the Constitution provided that the Senate deal with internal affairs, he was quick to speak to the Senate and requested the ban of the Communist Party. Obviously, only the 3 Communist Senators were outraged and tried to scream that the government was initiating in political repression. This protest was muted out quickly by the laughter of the other Senators, who quipped that "now the Comissars care about political freedom, when they are no longer in power." The Senate immediately voted to ban the Communists from legal political life in Bulgaria for at least 8 years - in other words, for most of the next decade, the Communists will be powerless. All but the 3 Communist Senators voted "aye". By the next morning, none of the Communist delegates were present, and the legislation that banned them also said that the 3 seats they vacated will be left empty until the next Senatorial election in 2 years.
Outside this political stuff, though, in the common people's life, though, things were relatively unchanged by the ban of Communist activity. Well, they were changed a bit for the better. Many Bulgarians let out a collective sigh of relief that their former oppressors had lost their bid for control for 8 years. Financial life was visibly improving. Though the inflation that had hit Bulgaria during the civil war was still existent and the country was still trying to find its way out of the recession, many Bulgarians had optimism.
The free press cheered that "Bulgaria has entered a new age!" - an age of freedom and equality.
Still, despite the triumphant, improptu celebration parades held several times already in Sofia by jubilant supporters of the young democracy, there was still some other feelings afoot. No, not many wanted Communism back again. Hell, the 4% that the Communists got in the Presidential Election was mainly due to the intimidation campaign they illegally carried out in the countryside. Without that intimidation, they would have been lucky at this point, with the apparent increasing success of the democracy, to get 1% of the vote.
No, these "other" feelings were not politically motivated. People were feeling that Bulgaria had been reduced by the half-century of Soviet dictatorship to just an insignifcant rump - a slab of meat surrounded by hungry neighbors. People were increasingly beginning to feel that Bulgaria must become stronger, so that her neighbors don't feel that they can come in any time, mess around, take over, and then end up making everything screwed up like the Soviets did.
A few of these people felt imperialist ambition. Most of these people, though, seemed to think that military might would satisfy the need for strength. The new President, Oleg Tura, was among this group of people who felt Bulgaria must be strong - he seemed to be more inclined to making Bulgaria militarily strong enough to withstand attack and show neighbors that Bulgaria is no pushover. Perhaps if he had that extra expansionist thoughts in him, he might have gained a few more votes?
"Bulgaria's future," Tura said in a post-inauguration address , "is not yet crystal-clear. The future I hope for and that I know all Bulgarians hope for is a bright one, where Bulgaria is free, democratic, tolerant, and independent. It is a Bulgaria that will not become a pawn in the great game of the great powers, as it had after World War II. It is a Bulgaria that will be a factor in world, or at least continental or regional, decisions, and it is a Bulgaria that will matter. To this end, the day after I was inaugurated as the President of the Bulgarian Democratic Republic, I enrolled our country in the new revived United Nations, in the hopes of maintaining a peaceful world and accelerating our recovery from the years of foreign occupation, foreign rule, brutal tyranny, and civil war. Thank you."