Although a member of theEuropean Union since 2007, Bulgaria remains politically, culturally and socially distant from the Western core of Europe.
The reasons are profoundly historical, cultural and institutional. The country was under Ottoman rule for five centuries, cut off by the Renaissance, the Enlightenment and the Industrial Revolution. The Orthodox Christian tradition reinforced a more collective, less individualistic mentality.
This was followed by the communist period, where Bulgaria was one of the most loyal followers of the Soviet Union. The transition to democracy after 1989 was slow and painful: oligarchy, high corruption and weak institutional counterbalances maintained a hybrid political culture.
In this context, Bulgaria’s electoral “Centre Left” differs radically from the social democratic parties of Western Europe. While the French, German or Scandinavian centre-left focuses on progressive social values, multiculturalism, environmentalism and a strong welfare state with an emphasis on minority rights, the Bulgarian one is in more conservative territory.
It advocates economic paternalism and protection of “national sovereignty”, and has advocated against gay marriage and has expressed reservations about sanctions against Russia. Even the election-winning party, Progressive Bulgaria, is much closer to post-communist Eastern European models than to Western social democracy.
In social it is conservative, in foreign policy it has a pro-Russian profile, in economics it is based on left-wing paternalism (high pensions, state protection) and anti-oligarchy, not on green transition or progressive taxation.
The difference is not accidental.
In Bulgaria the political spectrum was shaped by opposition to (or in favor of) the communist past. The “Left” was identified with the pre-1989 class, the “Right” with the anti-communist, pro-Western transition. Thus, even today, the priorities of the Bulgarian “centre-left” remain more nationalist, less “woke” and more oriented towards economic survival than towards the post-material values of Western Europe.
Bulgaria is in Europe, but not yet part of the West. Therefore, when Western analysts analyze it, they should take off their “Western glasses”.
