In politics, as in life, you have heard the expression repeatedly - to make you nothing. But perhaps “To turn you into a stool“ sounds unfamiliar to you. After this comment, a week after the elections, I suppose you may remember this expression. It is related to a story about voting and Valerian.
But not for a pill with a calming herb, but for a story with a lesson
The fate of Emperor Valerian was sad. Considering himself a great Roman commander, he led the army to the East in a battle for which he was not ready. When he was defeated on the battlefield by the Persians in 260, near Edessa, his punishment was like no other.
According to legend, he was turned into a living footstool. He stood huddled under the throne of the Persian king Shapur I, like a small human chair, and straightened his back when the king mounted his horse. This is the most humiliating episode in the history of the Roman Empire, dedicated to paintings, rock bas-reliefs and the ancient message that self-forgetfulness can turn even an emperor into a footstool. This happened last Sunday.
On election day, a large part of the public voted and simply put their feet on the footstools
Why did this happen? Because you go to the store - everything has become more expensive. You sit down to eat a salad and wonder if you are on the Champs-élysées, or in the neighborhood? You get up. You pay. You swear in your mind and burp on a receipt, not on candy. The expensive ones.
Is the euro to blame? No, it's speculation. And the global turbulence in the Gulf. But some parties behaved as if they were fighting for votes in Michigan, not in Montana, distancing themselves from the reality that took their heads off not like a MAGICIAN, but like Astor's magic.
You open Facebook - spells and shamans, pouring radicalism as if everyone owed them. Politicians who fell victim to social media algorithms, thinking that likes, views and shares are equivalent to votes at the ballot box. A miserable delusion that created a deceptive sense of self-sufficiency and infallibility.
Then you wonder why young and more moderate people didn't support you and a large part didn't understand you. Well, has it occurred to you how tired society is of all this noise, chaos, aggression? Didn't you understand that no one likes those who constantly wave their fingers, no matter what they say?
Do you even remember why the protests broke out?
Because those who secretly and openly ruled the country, thinking that they would be in power forever, waved their fingers at us every night and spoke edifyingly to us with strong feelings and poor vocabulary. They behaved like small, local emperors, whom the people then, with their votes... turned into stools and stools.
And this is not just a problem for the right or the left. The former rulers also forgot why they were there - until they were reminded. Now it's really time for a valerian.
The question today is - and now what? And now where? To the east? Without knowing what is in the minds of the winners - probably not. So many different people voted for “Progressive Bulgaria“ - both more conservative and more liberal, pro-Russian and pro-European, that making a sharp turn just to please some means biting off your own leg or arm and is the quickest way to reduce yourself to... a stool. With such a diverse electorate, the question is what unites those who voted for you, not what divides them. And hopefully the winners realize what responsibility this means. Because all the power will be in their hands. And there will be no time for excuses.
If they don't give it to themselves, the answer will be bad. For everyone. It was just a story about history. With an ancient lesson about long-gone events that have a tendency to repeat themselves over and over again. From an emperor - to a stool for feet. No one is safe – neither the opposition nor the ruling party.