Comment by Ivaylo Noizi Tsvetkov:
Degeneration of liberal democracy? Not at all, don't rush into the eschatological discourse about a new far-right and traditionalist world order taken over by semi-dictators. These are the last gasps of right-wing populism. Because time is running out and Gen Z (Generation Z) is coming from below.
Young people cannot live in an unfree world
Gen Z increasingly feel that the notorious swing of the pendulum towards the self-proclaimed far-right does not and cannot prepare them for the future - in a world that they cannot imagine as unfree and which has no particular argument other than "the power and money are in us". In our country, this is to some extent the case, but the layer of brilliant Gen Z (not to mention the little ones - Gen Alpha - who are already insistently coming and do not care that at 16 you cannot start your life) have grown up in almost complete freedom and are aware that even though the deep state is now keeping them away from power, this will not be the case for long. For biological and cultural reasons.
Young people around the world and in our country are starting to realize that the populist right (in our country only populist) ultimately wants to imperceptibly take away their freedoms. Yes, we are still in a world in which political leaders are mostly 60+ years old, but they have no idea what is ruthlessly coming from below.
We have current examples: Serbian students who will form a party of change, Hungarian youth, young doctors in our country - together with the Third or Fourth Digital Revolution (AI) - more and more of the young will take over parts of the power resource. The new is coming ruthlessly, and it does not a priori carry the lack of freedom in itself. However, what do the last ones who rule us for now bring, not to mention the remnants of communism in our country, which are still alive?
Let's not rush to bury liberalism
At the moment, everyone seems to be staring at the French political crisis of Macron and Le Corneille, which is capable of bringing even Marine Le Pen out of the political grave. The most obsessed are the new world trumpeters of the concept of sweeping right-wing populism, which they call "new conservatism", inspired by the unstable psyche of Donald Trump, which in turn has led to various unheard-of semi-totalitarian practices in the Mecca of freedom. This is nonsense: the liberal idea itself is tough enough, proving it back in the 1970s in the US, when it was she who elected Carter, and then the truly funny Reagan, to whom the following quote is attributed: "Wake me up if there's a nuclear war, even if I'm in a cabinet meeting". By the way, Reagan would give Trump a well-deserved slap today, if only because the US in the late 1980s was amazing economically, without being pushy.
As much as we agreed that classical liberalism went too far with some things like woke and multi-gender diversity, and today it seems to be in retreat, I will have to offer you a different angle. Trump's second term ends in 2028 and we don't know what else he will do - let's hope it's not nuclear war, as a side effect of his personal campaign for the Nobel Peace Prize. Calvin Smith has already written about how the Trump administration, unlike Reagan's, seems to misunderstand the concept of nuclear deterrence, but there is something else: The general concept of a bipolar world has gone with the rise of China.
The march against freedom is doomed
Ergo, the understanding of politics should be completely new, because at the world poker table we have a new player who bluffs all the time that he has two aces, but in fact already holds a "Royal Flush" and is waiting for his moment. From there we should draw the conclusion that "liberalism in crisis", but also that neoliberalism no longer has almost nothing in common with Leonard Trelawney Hobhouse or John Hobson. That is. We are now facing a huge and well-funded PR campaign against freedoms, according to which we are in a state of "degeneration of democracy", which probably makes Karl Popper, dear, turn in his grave. The dramatic expression is from Macron himself and was immediately taken up by right-wing populists all over the world, like, "ah, did you see that we were right".
You are wrong, it will not last long. Yes, in current Europe there is some distrust on the issue, there are politicians, especially in Eastern Europe, who replace liberal democracy with the "well-tempered piano" of the hidden dictatorship, including in our country. You live it, you want it, some of you, I understand, but even Trump is now realizing - for example, with regard to Gaza and Israel - that the liberal backlash is greater than even the tech billionaires, who were already disenchanted after not receiving the cherished tax breaks.
The old ones will go sooner or later
I boldly predict that right-wing populism will be gone in a few years - for no other reason than because time is running inexorably and, as has already been said, sooner or later Gen Z will take over not only the discourse, but also the real power. And right-wing populism caters, if you will allow me this verb, only to the old.
Who are the old? We still watch them on television. They do not fully understand that this eternal political dysfunction and simmering social stratification will sooner or later throw them out of the race, and that television outside of the simple, desperate formats is no longer a factor, i.e. all its political content is for the trash in "Krasno Selo". Oh, and that right-wing populism should not pose as left-wing, regularly pouring money into the administration's beak.
Because the young, although now supposedly staring at their phones, understand that they cannot live here forever in the "deep state" (some would even say "fat"). The belief that sooner or later we will live in a true democracy, i.e. a form of government in which freedoms and the law really rule, with all its shortcomings, is returning.
And this is not some wishful thinking on my part. The only chance for Bulgaria, and not only, is for power to be taken over by people who have never lived in a state of deprivation and for the first time are not connected to the communist services.
The problem cannot be a solution
I understand well that this is a naive observation given the old and new mafia that rules. I can express myself far more complexly - given today's political and verbal incontinence, again if you allow me to use this word, and the lack of predicate thinking in public discourse. Despite them, I see no other way out of the above-mentioned right-wing populism, which poses as the solution, while in fact it is the problem.
Gen Z are people formally born after 1997, but in fact - unlike the well-educated before them - they rely mainly on the fact that there is a completely new digital world, which has little to do with the urge for epistemological accumulation of knowledge. In my opinion, these are the freest people today and probably from them in 3-5 years the third great "liberal", i.e. free revolution will come.
Which is the first? The most important, after the Restoration in England, after 1688, which for the first time recognized the sovereignty of parliament. Today we do not have the sovereignty of parliament, it has become an idiocy, which leads us to the second after De Gaulle and the Fifth Republic. I.e. leads us nowhere.
To sum up: right-wing populism is literally going away because of Trump, Orbán, Fico and our government. Anyone can make a sandwich out of that.