Bulgarian Lesson

The news of the candidacy is the extra-political provenience, the charismatic profile and the populist program – these were the ingredients of the success recipe the former king Simeon II applied at the elections in Bulgaria on Sunday.
The National Movement Simeon II – who, indeed, is more of a movement and less of an articulated political party – was set up two months ago only, having no time for involvement in a any major public scandal.
In this short interval it was only discovered that among the candidates for Parliament of the formation, among which we can find an Olympics champion, a former beauty queen, a magician, there are also collaborators of the secret services. The fact was found out without consequences on the impact of the saving message of the novelty.
In a country in crisis, absolute novelty suggests freshness and change in a bigger percentage than the rotation to ruling.
Secondly, we can see Simeon II doesn’t come from the Bulgarian political stage, perceived by most of the Bulgarians as made up of a corrupted and incapable elite.
Moreover, Simeon II had the advantage of the personal charisma (charm mixed with paternalism) in an electoral dispute in which the parties launched similar programs (stipulating fight against corruption and poverty, prudent macro-economic policies, adherence to international institutions).
The mythic substrate of his charisma is the Savor image he had created. Simeon comes on the stage after a martyrdom with Christian resonance (abdication and expulsion in 1946). The savor function is, according to Maurice Barrès "the socialization of souls" – in other words, the social reinsertion of the alienated crowds, moral regeneration, the identity re-comforting and the projection of a meaning.
Finally, in order to refer to the populist program of the National Movement Simeon II, let us remind, after Peter Wiles, populism is more of a syndrome than doctrine, it is more moralist than programmatic.
The program of the former monarch looks like the ones of the other parties, except that it is more vague. Instead of saying how he would fight against poverty or corruption, Simeon contented with revolt in a discourse way, with moralism and pathetism.
In Romania’s case, the political world received, after the round last year, the extraordinary chance to regenerate from inside. But the structural tendencies that favor populism maintain themselves. Which means that if the political world doesn’t suffer a reform, there is a risk that here too a providential character appear, who might not have the honorable face of a Simeon II. There are promising signals in this direction. But regeneration doesn’t only mean changing the leaders, but also the modification of the political behavior and the reconsideration of the political system. That is a long way that cannot be stepped without political will.
(Adrian CIOFLANCA)