Totalitarian Bulgaria on the horizon?

Jan 10

By Antonia Georgieva

Introduction

Seven parliamentary elections in the span of three years(1). This is a summary of the political situation in Bulgaria from 2021 until now. I doubt any of you read that first sentence and imagined a politically stable country. Well, you’re right - what is happening in Bulgaria now is unprecedented and concerning for many reasons. However, that may not be how the public perceives the situation.

Context

The current downhill spiral started with the parliamentary elections in April of 2021(2). These were supposed to be the elections for the 45th regular Bulgarian parliament. For those of you that don’t know, in Bulgaria after each parliamentary election the President gives a mandate to the party with the most votes - it’s their duty to form the National Assembly - all parties elected in it must agree to cooperate and work with each other(3). If that party returns the mandate as not completed, the President gives a mandate to the next party in line with the most votes, and so on. However, after the April 2021 elections, a parliament was not formed - none of the parties managed to do so. Needless to say, this was a difficult time for the Bulgarian population - lack of a government in the midst of a public health crisis (the Covid-19 pandemic) is not exactly what citizens were looking for. However, what we did not see coming was that this event would mark the beginning of something bigger and more serious. This would be the first crack in a shattering glass that would reveal the instability of the political institutions in the country, but also the dissatisfaction of the people and the shifts in public perception of political and social changes. Now it’s December 2024, three years have passed, and after many elections, we are still unable to form a National Assembly.

The new anti-LGBT law

To get the whole picture, we have to collect all the pieces of the puzzle. This August, upon proposal by the political party Vazrazhdane (Revival), a new anti-LGBT law was passed(4). Revival is known as a very far-right, pro-Russian political party, so them pushing legislation of this kind came as a surprise to no one. What caught many people, myself included, off-guard was the parliamentary majority that voted in support of this law.

But what is this law exactly? It claims to “prohibit the propaganda, promotion, or incitement of LGBTQ+ ideas and views in schools”(4). This law is extremely problematic for a plethora of reasons. Most notably - the discrimination of queer people and the push for hatred against them. One of the most problematic aspects of this, from a legal point of view, is how vague it is. Nothing in it is defined and concretely specified. How are you supposed to prohibit a certain action, if you cannot even define it? This vagueness enables an inevitable abuse of power - if no one knows what the actual problematic actions are, how is law enforcement going to pick who gets punished and in which form? Anything can be described as propaganda, depending on who you ask.

And this perspective concerns what the teachers and education personnel will do. What about the students though? Needless to say, there are plenty of concerns regarding the comprehensive education aspect. But there is something else I want to shed a light on. School is a place where students are supposed to feel safe. What about the kids that come from abusive households? What about the students for whom school is the only escape from reality and their only safe space? When legislation of this kind gets passed, does anyone stop to consider what it means for them? What about the LGBT+ kids whose only place of acceptance was their school? What about the many queer teachers already in the system? Are they supposed to quit their vocation because their country doesn’t care about their rights and safety?

There is a lot of critique to be expressed when it comes to this law. Since that’s not the focal point of this piece, and I aim to be precise, I will stop here after asking so many questions. Thinking about their answers and implications helps to illustrate the painful reality of the situation.

Low voter turnout

Another puzzle piece sticks out amid all the elections. Results aside, if you pay attention, you can’t help but notice something - a low voter turnout. People are not going to the polls. And not only is the voter turnout low, it continues to decrease with every upcoming election(5). Here I could cite a number of articles depicting potential reasons for this development - political dissatisfaction, economic struggles, etc. But I want to share my personal experience as a Bulgarian citizen. Since I became eligible to vote and subsequently started discussing this topic more with other voters around me, one thing caught my attention - the amount of people that say they don’t vote because “there is no point”. Some say that but still turn in their ballots, which is interesting. Overall, my experience shows that people all over the political spectrum are expressing a strong dissatisfaction and loss of hope with the current politicians.

While I’m on the topic of election results, I want to briefly point out something else, and that is the parties that get the most votes. Over the last couple of years, we have had the same two parties in the top two - GERB-SDS and PP-DB. What’s interesting to note is the party that comes in third, and the potential implications that can have. Since 2009, the most prominent “rivalry” for the top two spots was between GERB (centre-right, conservative) and BSP (centre-left, descendant of the former Communist party). Around 2021 something started changing. Many events have occurred ever since - the temporary rise (and subsequent drop) in power of ITN (right-wing, populist), the swift emerge of PP (centre, social liberalism) and their subsequent coalition with DB (centre-right, democratic), and recently - the rise of Revival (far-right, nationalist). I always knew Revival existed, but found their extreme far-right politics beyond ridiculous - I thought this was an opinion that we, as a nation, shared. While I was frustrated with the governments of GERB and PP-DB, I found comfort in knowing that extremist nationalist parties like Revival didn’t seem to gain a lot of votes. Until that changed. Since the elections in 2023, BSP experienced a significant drop in popularity, which for many of us was good news. What I didn’t expect, however, was that their spot was about to be taken by Revival. But there it was, staring me in the face - since 2023, Revival has remained the third political power in the elections. Unexpected or not, it is the reality.

How do totalitarian regimes gain momentum?

Despite our different lines of work, everyone has a baseline level knowledge of world history - you know World War I and II happened, you know about nazi Germany and fascist Italy. These events were so monumentally catastrophic, that everyone on Earth has heard of them, whether they care about history or not. In studying these moments in history, there are usually a few questions we aim to answer. During which years did this take place? Who were the political leaders at the forefront? How did the general public even let atrocities of this calibre occur?

That last question is something that I find particularly fascinating. Looking back, we can all agree that the Holocaust, for example, is one of the worst things that ever happened to mankind. But what about when it was actually happening? Did the people back then not realise the severity of that atrocity? How did such radical political powers come to be? Didn’t anyone stop to think hey, this is absurd…?

In my first year of university I took an Introduction to History class, where this was one of the many things I needed to learn and be able to elaborate. As an answer to the question How did leaders like Hitler and Mussolini gain so much popularity and support from the public? our professors noted a few key elements. First, when they rose to power during times of extreme political dissatisfaction and economic instability in their countries. Another ingredient in their politics was a rising amount of censorship, especially in education. Nazis were known for burning books that included topics that didn’t align with them politically(7), the point of which was to censor education and critical thinking. This sort of censorship is a key marker of extreme totalitarian regimes of power, but it’s also one that can be relatively easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. The average person characterises nazism with its most extreme aspects such as the ethnic cleansing of many demographic groups. However, we must remember that there is more to it, there are other elements we need to look out for.

So, we can note those three things - political dissent, economic instability and education censorship - as some of the main ingredients of the rise of totalitarian regimes. Sound familiar? three things that have actively happened or are currently ongoing in Bulgaria at this very moment. A far-right party on the rise, proposing and passing laws that censor the intellectual expansion and human rights of civilians, and economic uncertainty as we prepare to enter the Eurozone(8).

Conclusion

Oftentimes when we are not happy with our country’s political situation, we tend to blame it on the politicians - what they do, or rather what they don’t. Undoubtedly, we must keep them accountable for their actions as we are allowed to criticise the people we give our vote to. But what if our role is just as significant and worthy of critique. “The government you elect is the government you deserve.” The infamous quote by Thomas Jefferson is still as relevant as ever. Sure, our politicians have a track record of poor decision making, but what about us? Are we really going to blame our country’s political decline on the politicians forever, when we were those who elected them? It was us that ignored the signs of a potential totalitarian decline; it was us that didn’t keep ourselves educated and open-minded enough to prevent our demise.

I’m not sure what my country’s future looks like. I hope it’s a joyous one that I can be proud of. But I cannot ignore the warning signs of our current reality and I don’t think anyone else should either.

References

Kristina Konarcheva

Totalitarian Bulgaria on the horizon?

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