Toshko Yordanov insulted young Bulgarian doctors, and then tried to justify himself instead of truly apologizing. But that's how it is in the land of half-apologies. In Bulgaria, no one is to blame for anything. By Ivaylo Noizi Tsvetkov.
In Bulgaria, we live in a special culture of political half-apologies. Always and somehow magically, the words of a politician have been interpreted "out of context" - even in today's digital times, when there is video of almost everything. You are aware of the latest case in which Toshko Yordanov, chairman of the PG of the Bulgarian National Academy of Sciences, quite thoughtlessly said that to young Bulgarian doctors, and then tried to push the favorite explanation of Bulgarian politicians with "out of context".
But my "champion" in this story is the leader of the Bulgarian National Academy of Sciences, Slavi Trifonov, who waited four whole days to see and assess the damage, after which he tore off his leather jacket and apologized "most sincerely and with all his being" for Toshko. But this sounded like an apology for a problem child, a "well, that's just the way he is" type, and also like a pathetic attempt to minimize and possibly extinguish the public damage.
Toshko, otherwise an intelligent person (I guarantee at least his education), with apologies, does not have a drop of talent for a political career; in this sense, he is a damage to the entire political class, especially in this climate of furious and ultra-thin social-media offensiveness. (It is another question why real media, led by national televisions, out of simple laziness or stupidity allow Facebook hysterics to post their content.)
Toshko caused trouble, but is he otherwise a good kid?
And when Slavi gets off the couch to explain to us how all this with Toshko is completely unacceptable, we logically ask ourselves why, after his full apology and Toshko's half-apology, there are no decisive measures - for example, to remove the trust from Mr. Yordanov.
How why? After all, all the sgafils in Bulgarian politics are carefully waiting for everything to pass and everything to go back to the old way, because, for example, Slavi supports the government mainly through his former scriptwriters sent to parliament. Ergo, don't expect measures to clean up the blunder, quite the opposite - we will wash away the blunder with more statements.
And it's simple: an apology is not enough. Sorry doesn't fix it, as the Americans say. Especially when it's really half-hearted, "contextual" and in the style of "Oh, you didn't understand me".
In this sense, Slavi's apology for Toshko sounds as if the latter had caused trouble, but otherwise he's a good kid. And this is crushing, because Toshko's supporters are in all parties. And in fact, the most crushing thing is that apologies lead to absolutely nothing.
By the way, Borisov gave them a "lecture" how to do it: you explode and lose your temper against a certain journalist, you know you're wrong, but you still apologize for your tone (while watching the government serve out a full term, as it will).
Will anyone ever truly apologize?
Why is it so hard to truly apologize in our political reality? Maybe because it's mega hard to give up a total of 18,000 leva per month (with participation in committees and everything) if you're an MP. Toshko himself, of course, after all the bickering, will remain an MP, who probably gives part of his salary to (the cause of) Slavi.
And will anyone ever truly apologize? So, to say from the heart, sorry that I didn't do anything in politics, I got there by accident, I even paid for it, but my people (be it GERB, DPS or most of all ITN) deceived me and now they owe me money, but they don't pick up the phone.
But since it was about the culture of the "half-apology": everyone who explodes and is wrong, then lies and lies that he was not fully understood, but the native system doesn't just throw him out, but sends him to the media how he "got confused".
Six months ago, on the other side of the world, they showed us how it's done. After a plane crash that killed 179 people, Kim Yi-bey, the head of the South Korean airline "Jeju Air", owner of the crashed plane, said: "I am guilty as a boss, I feel enormous responsibility for this incident". However, in Bulgaria it is not like that. Public figures know that according to Bulgarian folk psychology, they are never guilty of anything.
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This comment expresses the personal opinion of the author and may not coincide with the positions of the Bulgarian editorial office and DV as a whole.