Bulgaria 2014: Now what?

Did the protests in Bulgaria bring about any change? I’m not sure.

For over 400 days the Bulgarian National Assembly building in Sofia was surrounded by barriers and police . That’s how long it took for the Prime Minister to hand in his resignation and for the government to step down.

Another year, gone

In the summer of 2013 I kept wondering why the western media were reluctant to report on the events in Bulgaria. Friends of mine suspected confusion on the foreign part. I myself thought it was good old cynicism: events in Ukraine had not unfolded, South Stream was advancing, Bulgarian banks were stable, European funds were flowing towards Bulgaria, there was hardly any influx of refugees, let alone a refugee crisis, there was no violence in the streets.

In cynical speak, a year ago things in Bulgaria were relatively fine.

Politicians in Bulgaria recognised that a large protest such as #дансwithme needed slowing down, and they aimed at arresting the crowd’s momentum — a classic move. It was well executed through a combination of glacial pace of events that matter, i.e. government and parliamentary work, and an increased flow of the usual in politics — peripheral drama, false moves, media bursts of allegations and scandals. Those were intended to buy time for the parties to regroup. Unfortunately the situation was to last.

So the established media were right and it turned out there was nothing fast-developing to cover. Things were to be boring, leads were to hit speculative dead-ends. Calls were to fall on deaf ears. The crowd’s resolve was to be tested for endurance. That’s becoming refined in Bulgarian democracy. The frail enthusiasm is also something of a national feature. As a society, we have a lot to learn about standing up.

A year later BBC News duly reported on the event so many Bulgarians, including ones abroad, longed for. The tone of that short article is as blunt as I’ve seen: PM quits, leaving behind a banking crisis, on the back of collapsing parliament, a year after economic unrest, oh and by the way, Bulgaria is one of the EU’s poorest countries.

An anti-climax, for everyone I know has lost interest; best they could manage was a joke of some sort. More importantly, at present hardly any political fraction or person could merit a mandate to fix broken Bulgaria. At least the BBC made no mention of Syrian refugees, new loans in the billions, anti-EU gas pipe agreements, frozen EU funds, blockaded universities, money-laundering high-ranking politicians, fleeing bankers, or deadly natural disasters.

Can it be fixed?

I’m not one to comment on external economic and political influence in Bulgaria, or intimate domestic power struggles. I did, however, see my own friends lose interest, faith, hope for change. People past caring plays to the interests of a ruling elite. Depressed but patient people — that’s lucrative. Post-communist rule knows this well.

I want to believe that the most direct result of having #дансwithme every day for over a year, big or small, is a newly-acquired vigilance on our part. Instead, I saw people voting with their feet, life-is-short-style, one-way via the airport terminals. This is not the best thing for a country, nor is it best for an individual (I have the experience to prove it).

I want to believe that Bulgaria is not past the tipping point, its future as a country rendered irrelevant to the young and their parents, who look for opportunities abroad. The dozen or so teenagers I overheard passionately discuss their SAT scores on a recent cross-border trip, though, kept saying otherwise.

Now what?

2014 snap elections in Bulgaria are scheduled for October. That’s enough TV time to watch House of Cards instead (or The Wire, both good series and take on politics), or do one better by reading The Prince (if you dare), inquire into the curious behaviours of the powers that be, or just take a long break from Facebook and read up on some history in general and try to make sense of it. Baby steps. That’s how far behind we are.

There’s no easy way to “get” politics, yet democracy runs on regular people like us being involved. That’s not a contradiction, merely an obligation to make time and do some work, otherwise old texts end up being used for dark purposes. A country of ignorant people expecting a miracle by way of external agency — that never works. It never works, ever.