The protests of the last few days have brought to light something that the political class was stubbornly trying to hide - trust in the government has run out. And it has not "decreased", not "trembled", but deflated like a deflated balloon that is now just tossing around on the asphalt.
Rumen Radev, who until recently personified the "voice of the street", today looks more like a warden who wants to intervene - both against the cabinet and against the old behind-the-scenes players. The president stands aside, and the squares speak for him.
At the same time, in the National Assembly, Rosen Zhelyazkov is trying to keep the parliamentary agenda in a controlled form, but even he knows that after the recent events, the plenary hall is simply a room in which the new political fire is waiting.
Boyko Borisov, a veteran of survival, is once again playing the “man-in-the-middle“ — he did not support the protests, he did not direct them, but, of course, he was “for the people“. A familiar number from a familiar repertoire. The same goes for Delyan Peevski — the man who always appears in crises like a comet from the political orbit and each time insists that he is starting a “new beginning“, while history very clearly shows otherwise.
The cabinet? He has not been governing for a long time, but is surviving. The PP–DB found themselves in a trap: they are both in the role of eternal opposition, and they are trying to explain to people that “reforms are painful“. Yes, they are painful — especially when citizens feel only the pain, but not the reform.
The real opposition - the one on the street - no longer waits for either parties or leaders. The protests showed that the dissatisfaction is not “party“ and not “targeted“. It is accumulated. And it is collective.
Elections… are rather inevitable. Politicians are afraid to admit it because they know that the next vote could destroy structures built over years: Borisov's ambitions and Peevski's returning comfort.
But the street will not wait for their considerations.
The question is no longer whether there will be elections - the question is whether politicians will wait until the protests are over to understand it.