In our changing Europe, worsening demography is often a catastrophe for democracy. Romania and Bulgaria are good examples of countries depleted of the healthiest part of their population, as hundreds of thousands of their most active and dynamic citizens chose to make a better living abroad. Roughly one-third of Bulgaria’s voters live abroad. Consequently, election results are usually determined by a more elderly, less dynamic and less active population at home. And if one adds to this mix the so-called “controlled vote”, the result is political asphyxia, with the same parties making sure nothing changes, breeding disgust for politics and chasing abroad the next generation of émigrés.