Bulgaria is currently more divided than ever, said cultural anthropologist Prof. Ivaylo Dichev. He pointed out that today it is difficult to talk about national unity, common goals and common ideals. The expert commented:
„The unification and the ensuing Serbo-Bulgarian war show that the state can defend itself, can defend its ideals. Look, we don’t even have candidates for the presidential race yet, because no indisputable person can be found who is an authority figure. This means that we have undermined all authorities – political, journalistic and scientific – there are no indisputable characters. One of the reasons is probably the social networks, which allow everyone to write as they want, but so that the most regressive opinions are the most heard.”
Prof. Dichev is adamant that the last division of our nation is „for“ and „against“ the vaccines against COVID-19. He specified that anti-vaxxers in our country are more than half of the population. According to him, this is not the case in other European countries. In his words, this is a cultural war, which is currently led by the largest party in Parliament. The cultural anthropologist noted:
„Go back and you will see another even more absurd story with the Istanbul Convention. An absurd war broke out around this and some people began to mobilize and say that here Europe will change our sexes and all sorts of nonsense. Periodically unscrupulous politicians get us into some battles to have something to say and to have positions to defend.“
According to the professor, one of the results of this division of the nation is the abandonment of national goals and ideals. He pointed out that the Bulgarians had done everything possible to quarrel with North Macedonia. Prof. Dichev is adamant that over 50% of Macedonians believe that our country is their biggest enemy, because politicians – the far right, IMRO and BSP, have decided to play history. The specialist commented:
„There live people who are very close to us ethnically, we call them brothers, cousins. What haven’t we done in the last 3 years to quarrel with them. Instead of throwing bridges to get closer to these people, to reconnect this cultural area here, we did everything possible to quarrel not only with North Macedonia, but also with Albania and the whole Balkans around. We need to be very critical of these false issues that mobilize and tickle our emotions today. Politicians sell us hatred because it is best spent, especially on digital networks. We need to look for authorities in society who are not politically aggressive, but who are constructive.“
