The transition gave birth to too few democrats, and without them there can be no successful democracy.
The two main factors are:
- the transformation of socialist into anti-democratic propaganda in the mainstream media
AND
- the lack of transformation of communist education, in accordance with the new political system of the country.
In practice, the huge mass of “anti-democrats” maintains the power of the oligarchy and parallel power through its political projects such as GERB and PB.
Of course, few consider themselves “anti-democrats”, on the contrary, they believe that if there are elections - then there is democracy. But there are elections in Putin's Russia too; there were even in Bai Tosho's People's Republic.
Being a democrat means understanding how democracy works through its institutions and, most of all, the separation of powers. When you don't understand it - you continue to vote for the “strong hand”, which will replace the institutions and “fix us”.
This is where the strategic blindness of a huge number of Bulgarians comes from.
Regardless of the fact that there is no case in the world when a strong leader has brought prosperity alone - they continue to vote for “batki” like Borisov or Radev.
Even the favorite example of anti-democrats - the first leader of Singapore - did not command everything single-handedly.
He simply introduced three simple rules and thus an environment for prosperity:
(1) mandatory official English - despite the call for a return to local culture and traditions after the British colonial legacy;
(2) Protections for Western capital to freely invest and earn;
(3) Increased salaries for the administration, complete with very strict sentences for corruption.
In other words - only the right institutions always bring prosperity.
And the Bulgarians believe that:
(1) a former military man who has always followed orders and commanded can single-handedly “fix” without institutions to correct it;
(2) a person who has repeatedly given evidence of support from and closeness to the oligarchy will fight it;
(3) a politician fleeing the EU institutions - which bring harmony, order and predictability to the common market - through which Bulgaria rose from the ruins of communism - “knows better” how to develop Bulgaria, despite Europe;
(4) a former president who speaks through the Kremlin's vocabulary and has never done anything against the Kremlin can thus defend the “Bulgarian national interest”.
And to wash away all his blunders and failures with jokes about … The Assembly.
Would there have been an Assembly if there had been no BOTAŞ - oh, you foolish fool!