More and more strong scent of populism
Adelina Marini, July 13, 2009
This is the feeling from the last few days because it becomes more and more clear that the future prime minister of Bulgaria will form a minority government, because the fact that he lacks 4 MPs does not mean that voters don't want him to rule them. At least this is what I got from the interview of Mr. Boyko Borisov for the "Face to face" show on Nova TV. Besides, he was to gather his MPs so as to teach them lessons about how they should not vote with other people's cards in Parliament (quite frequent practice so far). And that is a true populism in form.
Generally for the last few days Mr. Boyko Borisov talked loudly and on his behalf on all issues that interested media in the last 4 years. However, a realistic and sober review would show that only for the first 2 years in power, the new government will not just have to stabilize economy against the background of a severe crisis which is still hard to forecast, but it will also have to secure the survival of the economy. Given this, to form a minority government might mean couple of things:
1. You do not realise the scale of the disaster which you will inherit and which actually is;
2. You are so convinced that your line of behaviour is the right one that you rely everyone to support you, without using the first non-confidence vote that will be asked by the left which is still alive and preying. This also means that you do not realise that there are resilient forces that would be happy for early elections because this would show the world they are still alive;
3. Obviously you serve someone who if not given the chance to take down the new government, will die politically;
4. All of the above 3.
I agree that the situation is complex and that one might feel like after a strong earthquake, wondering where to start from in the middle of the ruins, but that is exactly why significant caution is needed and not because so many people believed you but because much more people do not want to starve, do not want to lose their homes because they cannot afford to pay them and who would want their children to have good education so that they could secure nice pensions for their parents. In other words - more and more people want the stability and security which for more than 40 years is in place in Europe and not another circus which is a good euphemism of populism.