SOFIA, Bulgaria -- The car of the Japanese ambassador was stolen while he walked from the car to his residence. Thieves hijacked the car of the papal nuncio on a busy highway, leaving the nuncio on the side of the road as they drove away.
So pervasive is crime in Bulgaria that the former government minister responsible for the police has suggested that citizens acquire guns.
"It is better for ordinary citizens to have a gun to protect themselves," said Viktor Mihailov, the former interior minister, "since the state cannot fully defend them."
With parliamentary elections scheduled for Dec. 17-18, a rise in crime and a steep fall in living standards have produced a wave of nostalgia for the certainties of the days of Communist rule -- when personal safety and basic living standards, albeit low, were guaranteed.
The caretaker prime minister, Renata Indzova, has warned that organized crime has infiltrated state institutions, and that Mafia-type gangs might try to disrupt the elections.
Threats by gangsters are said to have already harmed the prospects of one political party, the Bulgarian Business Block. Its leader, George Ganchev, said that businessmen had been warned against making campaign contributions, to preserve the gangsters' influence. "This is a serious matter," Mr. Ganchev said.
Foreign businessmen say extortion is the country's growth industry. Most diplomatic missions have been "liberated" of one or more of their cars -- the Chinese embassy has lost seven -- and the suspects often include former members of the secret police working with help from holdovers from the Communist bureaucracy.
The nostalgia for less turbulent times is likely to help the former Communists -- renamed the Socialists -- at the polls, diplomats say. This nostalgia-driven phenomenon has helped former Communists regain a share of power in Poland and Hungary.
The election here will be the third in the five years since the fall of the longtime dictator, Todor Zhivkov. And what followed has been a ride from hope to disenchantment.
At first, a liberal coalition swept to power. A popular former
dissident, Zhelyu Zhelev, was elected president. Reforms were pushed through -- privatization, property restitution, laws allowing foreign investment.
"It was a pleasant surprise," said one diplomat. "We began categorizing Bulgaria with countries like Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, on the fast track to democratic development."
But the liberal coalition collapsed. By 1992, the Socialists governed in partnership with a small party representing the country's Turkish minority.
With reforms stalled, old Communist bosses reclaimed their old privileges and foreign investors remained on the sidelines.
Crime became rampant, with gangs working in partnership with gangsters in Russia to open new routes for stolen cars and illegal drugs.
The chaotic situation has brought about a dramatic fall in living standards, including an unemployment rate of 18 percent.
In September, the Socialist-led coalition collapsed, too, and Mr. Zhelev called for a general election.
Diplomats speculate that the Socialists engineered the collapse to take advantage of the pro-Communist nostalgia wave.
The Socialists have promised to push for more liberal foreign investment legislations.
"As a rule, the foreign investors should be placed on an equal footing with the Bulgarian buyers," said Jean Videnov, leader of the Socialists. But his party says it would limit the sale of "strategic industries" and restrict foreign participation.
In most opinion polls, the Socialists have support from about a third of the electorate. The liberal coalition has support from less than a quarter.
Neither party would be able to form a government without partners drawn from one or more of 50 smaller parties.