Author: Emi Baruch
DV: The anger, disgust with Peevski and Borisov and the shamelessness of the authorities led to the most crowded protests in Bulgaria in years. What did you see in the square?
Elisaveta Belobradova: I saw tens of thousands of young people, boys and girls between 16 and 25 years old. This was the crowd - generation Z. The boiling point of this protest was the budget.
These boys and girls are very practically oriented. They have nothing in common with us when we were young. For them, work means income. They are all positioned on social networks. The labor market has largely shifted to other places like Instagram, TikTok.
Many of the influencers on Instagram and TikTok earn from this. That's where they make a living. For them, monetizing their efforts on social networks is a serious daily job. And no one expected that the measures in this budget would blow them up. And the raising of the maximum social security income and the double dividend tax directly affect people from this generation.
DV: You say that they have carefully read and analyzed the hundreds of pages of the budget...
No, but since the beginning of November, every day we at Yes, Bulgaria have been talking about this budget like crazy and repeating the same things - what will happen if it is adopted. And this was heard and understood by the people, because we simplified and arranged them.
And at one point, the young people, seeing that their salaries would decrease, felt personally affected. This was something tangible. We, from the older generations, were used to more abstract formulations - constitutional reform, DANS, the justice system... For us, the boiling point was legality. The law is not an abstraction, but money is something much more concrete. To mess around and get money is a very concrete thing.
Many of these people have a parallel life to ours. It is on social networks, it is with their friends, it is in the comments they exchange, it is in gaming... A whole parallel world. What happened is that Peevski managed to enter this parallel world in a brutal way and directly affected their interests.
This is one of my interpretations. The second is that Trump also has a great importance. Trump made politics modern for the young. He is very memeified, gamified. He himself is a meme. Whether they like him or not is another matter. But he made politics accessible, including to fifteen-year-olds. Zelensky is with him, but he made his image accessible in a slightly different way. That is, politics became modern. And it became modern in the USA. Young people began to be interested in what was happening. It's good to know about politics. It's cool. Politics is cool. This is also a big change.
DV: Don't you think that the protest was not only about the budget - although it was the boiling point? Weren't the young people also united by the fact that for years, parents, friends, colleagues, neighbors stood bowed before the lawlessness, before the unforgiveness of Peevski and Borisov?
The truth is that Peevski has been stepping on the pedal for the last 3-4 months. Before that, he was not publicly the sole master of power. But the man couldn't stand his own ego and began to demonstratively break the spines of everyone around him, coalition partners, Zafirov, this one, that one. Wanting to be pampered, thanked, etc. This is what has started to irritate him a lot lately.
A few months ago, this energy was completely absent. It didn't exist. Young people said: okay, these politicians are boring, but politics must exist. They don't perceive the world the way we perceive it. They don't sit in their houses saying: my aunt, my grandmother, my mother, they were standing bent over, I'm going to go out to the square now.
No. They're not like that. They're in the world of Instagram. And in the world of Instagram, it matters a lot how you look, how brazen you are. Peevski repels. He repels in every way - physically, lexically, and conceptually. Young people saw Peevski, they saw Yordan Tsonev, Bajram Bajram... in the global Internet society you can't behave like that, because you will be brutally punished. The visualization of the impudence and unforgiveness, combined with the fact that they came, knocked on the young man's door and told him "give me 100 leva", drove them to protest.
DV: Have Gen Z only just now noticed Peevski's arrogance, his snide and humiliating comments against anyone who doesn't kiss his ring?
There's a difference in recent months. Look at Boyko Borisov speaking 8 months ago, look at him speaking a month ago. In 6 months, he's aged 5 years. Peevski went too far. Just like he went too far in 2013, only then he tried to go through the other entrance. Now he decided to go too far with the budget, because he thought that since the previous budget with the seven billion hole had passed, now business would swallow this one too.
It is very important to say one more thing: populists are in fashion in Europe and everyone is protesting with populist demands. Bulgaria is the first country, the only country where people came out for a right-wing budget, people came out with a demand for spending cuts. This is an absolutely unique situation. And this happened because the middle class, not the richest, was told directly: we will take some of your money, no matter that there are some addressless 5 billion here. Everyone understood it, because it is super simple.
The young person is just starting to count money. He is just starting to enjoy it. He is learning to work. And it happens that work gives him pleasure. I was a mute witness to an indicative scene: I go to buy jeans. And while I am in the dressing room I listen to two guys no more than 20-21 who work there. One says: "Dude, I've been working here for two years, I've increased turnover by 15 percent… Last month, with 400 leva, I didn't reach the store's quota to get bonuses. And you know what? I personally bought things for 400 leva so that everyone could make money, you bastard. This job is close to my heart. I love this store. It's like I'm at home."
Young guys, so pumped up. In some store. But they're thinking about money, they're thinking about bonuses. This is a different generation. We wanted to make a few leva, buy something, go out, go drink it, eat it. They have savings. Every Gen Z has savings. They are different from us.
DV: Do they think in terms of justice, are they interested in the justice system?
They are twenty years old. In their heads, the hierarchy of issues is not like ours. With us, the rule of law is at the top. With them, at the top of the pyramid - the greatest amazement in the world - is the right-wing economy, which, however, includes all democratic principles - free initiative, market economy, business development, fast, flexible solutions.
They look at their freedom in a different way, they say, this is the result we want to achieve: a rapidly developing economic state, in which I have the freedom to earn money.
DV: If money is their dominant, isn't there a problem with the moral construct of the society we are striving for? Aren't they becoming financially submissive, easily bribed?
I'm not saying that money is the most important thing. I say that's how you get to them. They understand that. That's clear to them. That's what they see. Money is made on the Internet. We, as adults, need to start seriously studying their social networks.
A lot of money is made with authentic content. You can't direct it. You have to tell the truth. All the women from "The Bachelor" posted the protest and posted calls to come to the protest. All the folk singers, all the lipstick influencers and so on... Because they know that there is organic in this. On TikTok and Instagram, only organic sells. The truth of truths. You will sell the most if you show your true self. Being without makeup, being ugly, then you can put on makeup and say you're beautiful.
What our generation doesn't understand is that they generate content very quickly, on the minute, they have to be first, they have to be there immediately. There's no time for scripts, for directing, and so on. They can't afford to pretend. The moment you buy them and say something that was dictated by someone else, your entire audience evaporates... In 24 hours, you just die on this social network. Everyone forced themselves to get into the trend. Everyone. You're not modern if you're not at a protest. You're not an influencer. Their world is ruthless.
DV: Representatives of all generations were at the protest. Is there continuity between them? How does Gen Z communicate with previous generations, with the Gen X generation - with their parents?
Very well. We get along very well. They actually enjoy Gen X a lot because they know that we grew up in some super wild years, when there was sex, drugs, punk, fights, and whatnot. And they enjoy what we wear... They think millennials are complete losers, but they enjoy Gen X a lot. Because they know that we are fighters and that we are old robbers.
DV: What do you think will happen the day after the protest?
I have no idea. The changes are so fast. Everything has already started at the speed of Gen X. At a furious pace. And we will have to catch this train and go with it at their speed, no matter how difficult it is for us.
Elisaveta Belobradova has been a member of parliament from Yes, Bulgaria in the last four parliaments. She is a social entrepreneur, media marketing specialist, artist, and lawyer by training.