Războiul din Ucraina și polarizarea din Bulgaria

Poveștile alegerii civilizaționale între Vest și Est în contextul războiului din Ucraina ascund prăbușirea societății bulgare contemporane

Ognian Kasabov, profesor de filosofie la Universitatea din Sofia

Acest articol a fost publicat pe site-ul organizației bulgare KOI (Colectivul pentru Intervenții Sociale) și reprezintă o încercare de a gândi critic și echilibrat despre ceea ce intelectualul italian Roberto Savio a numit ”suiciderea rațiunii”. 

Războiul, se spune în presă, nu este un moment pentru nuanțe, ci pentru a lua poziție. Agresiunea Rusiei împotriva Ucrainei continuă să exacerbeze atitudinile din întreaga lume. Liniile de demarcație se înăspresc. Lucruri care până de curând păreau doar o opțiune, și încă una extremă, încep să pară singura opțiune. Podurile se ard, îndârjirea crește.

Cu toate acestea, contururile specifice pe care le ia polarizarea din Bulgaria nu vorbește doar despre un blocaj politic. Pasiunile născute de evenimentele legate de  monumentul celui de-al treilea front ucrainean din Sofia sunt doar un moment într-un crescendo neîncetat de bufonerie (e vorbă de un fel de război între două tabere – una antirusă care dorește să vopsească sau ”să atace” monumentul armatei sovietice, și una prorusă care apără monumentul de atacatori – nota trăducătorului). De luni de zile suntem asaltați cu informații cu privire la „alegerea noastră civilizațională” de a face parte din Europa sau, dimpotrivă, cu privire la legătura de nezdruncinat dintre Bulgaria și Rusia.

Societatea noastră este implicată într-o criză de identitate, problematică nu numai pentru incoerența sa intelectuală și istorică, ci cel puțin la fel de mult pentru pericolul de a adânci tarele care ne distrug țara.

Slovenia voted for “green change”: a look into Robert Golob’s political message

Slovenia is a beatiful country, which has traditions in centre-left politics (source: Pixabay, CC0)

The winner of the 24 April 2022 Slovenian parliamentary elections is a party, which is center-left, pro-green and poro and pro-business. Cross-border Talks reviews the clash at the elections between what some describe as Robert Golob’s “technopopulism”  and pro-Orban right-wing populism of Janez Janša

Malgorzata Kulbaczewska-Figat

While most of Europe was occupied with the French presidential race, another election ended with a victory of a center-left, NGO-supported party over right-wing hardliners. Things are going to change in Slovenia… but how profound will the change be in the end?

Not long ago, Hungary’s Viktor Orban and his Fidesz party celebrated a decisive victory in parliamentary elections, leaving the united opposition far behind. On 24^th April, Orban must have waited for news from Slovenia: Janez Janša, one of his close political allies, also fought to win another term for his government. He was not as succesful as Orban, though. While 23,5% for Janša’s Slovenian Democratic Party was enough to win two MEPs more than in the previous elections, 34,5% of voting citizens chose the Freedom Movement, a fresh party led by Robert Golob, promising a green transformation and a society open to everyone. It will be actually more precise to say that Golob won these elections than to say that Janša lost them: in fact, the right-wing leader managed to keep the same voters he had four years ago. He still enjoys a wide margin of trust. He is neither eliminated from Slovenian politics, nor deprived of chances to re-emerge in the next electoral battle. Nevertheless, his rival managed to unite the anti-Janša voters around himself. He successfully persuaded even socialist voters to support his center-left project as the best chance to stop the right-wing just now.

The presidential elections in France are history. The new battles begin

No earthquake in France – Emmanuel Macron, just as it was expected, wins his second term. Did he expect, though, that his victory will be so much less convincing than five years ago? That time, more than 66 per cent of voters chose him in the second round, many genuinely hopeful about his political movement, La Republique en marche, and his promises to “renovate French politics”. Now no more than 58,5 per cent actually want him to stay, including those who decided that he was no more than a lesser evil.

Many others understand already that Macron’s “new political quality” equals neoliberal anti-social policies, securing the capital’s well-being and brutal suppression of social movements and street protests. There is utter arrogance in Macron’s claims that he is now the president of all the French men and women. He is not. He is the president of the rich, which was proven in the campaign when he revived the idea of raising the retirement age, the idea that was met with resolute resistance once he had announced   it back in 2019.