What is a "Sorosoid" and is democracy really threatened in our country and in Europe, commented in "The Network" on the "Hristo Botev" program Assoc. Prof. Georgi Lozanov, a lecturer at the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences of the Sofia University "St. Kliment Ohridski".
"Sorosoid"
"The stigma "Sorosoid" appeared long after the creation of "Open Society", when the position of civil society and liberal democracy began with critical publications, statements and positions towards undemocratic practices that began to develop during the transition. In fact, the battle is between liberal democracy, which is to some extent represented by NGOs and other organizations that are now associated with Soros, and the various local attempts at feudalism on a local basis. So, everything that is against them is called a foreign interest and a battle is waged against it. Soros has proven to be a very convenient label to package all this, by imagining in him some sinister figure who wants to do some evil to Bulgaria and humanity.
This has become a conspiracy theory that is reproduced again and again with a specific purpose and address. So that you can attack those organizations in which in one way or another a critical voice towards the ruling class is seen. Laws like the one on "foreign agents" are the mechanisms with which authoritarian regimes deal with civil society.
When the first two sectors – the state and business – are taken over and often oligarchically are in corporate connections, then the only chance for human rights to be protected is civil society – the third sector, i.e. organizations that have another legitimacy. Not that of state institutions and not that of money, but that of certain values and means with which they protect them. These are the means of critical publicity. The battle is against the absence of such voices and unfortunately this battle gives increasingly better results to those who want to turn societies into authoritarian structures, at the top of which stand several local autocrats or even just one."
When the topic of "Sorosoids""
"In order to be able to remove critical control and accusations from yourself, you have to invent an enemy and incite against him, based on a collective emotion such as hatred, to direct it against this enemy. This is a way of saving, a self-protective reaction of those who talk about the "Sorosoids", and Soros turned out to be some kind of villain from fairy tales, against whom everyone is fighting."
What threatens our democratic society
"It is threatened by an overall tendency for democracy to give way to authoritarian types of behavior, and this is the big problem - where the world will develop from here on out. Will the so-called "new world order" come, which is Putin's dream and means that politics will once again be done with force, not with contracts.
It is interesting that Kostadin Kostadinov and the DPS-New Beginning with Peevski at the head are absolutely unanimous regarding the "Sorosoids", Soros, and ultimately liberal democracy. This is because there was practically a hypothesis that Trump and Putin would converge their positions. As I see it, things are not going very well, so perhaps there will be other developments both globally and nationally. But the more Trump and Putin get closer, the more all autocratic types of behavior will get closer. Now, until recently, Peevski, with Euro-Atlantic views, suddenly dropped the "euro" and remained only Atlantic, so he enters the niche occupied by "Vazrazhdane".
Borisov and the grants
"Let's say that more important than what he says is that GERB did not support either the Foreign Agents Act or the proposal of DPS-New Beginning. For now. After all, deeds are more important than speeches. His speeches are smoke for the naive. They know very well that all funding is public, the websites are public and you can see who was given funds for what. Calling funding from our Euro-Atlantic partners "a foreign interest they serve" is in fact a denial of our belonging to this Euro-Atlantic community.
In fact, all this is an attempt again and again for Bulgaria to return to the sphere of post-Soviet and now Soviet influence. As it started with Hungary and Orban, it suddenly turned against Soros. The first civil organizations that Putin expelled from Russia were Soros's. Now, as you can see, our politicians are threatening to do this Putin thing as soon as they come to power in Bulgaria."
"The Sorosoid is a naive person who stayed to live in Bulgaria because he still hopes that Bulgarian society can become open and not be governed on the "my man" principle."
"Because civil society was fighting against this very thing - a corrupt, corporate and mafia-like form of exercising power. I am afraid that from now on even darker years may come. It depends on whether the subjects of democracy in Europe and the USA will sense where the processes are developing and will begin to resist. That is, to some extent, what will happen depends on us. We see that the students who are protesting in Serbia against corruption have been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. This is the way. I see no other way.
Keep in mind that Soros and his NGOs have long since ceased to be what they were, unfortunately. They are only being hounded at the moment. Unfortunately, now there is no such desire to assist in the development of democracy in Bulgaria as there was at the beginning of the transition, when, thanks to these civil organizations, democratic relations began to form in a society that had just left totalitarianism. This was a big and difficult job, civic in nature.
When you take control of the state and business, suddenly your biggest enemy becomes civil society, because this is a parallel legitimation. Yes, you can be in power, but there can always be some citizens who will say that you are exercising power undemocratically and stand against you. This is the great fear that makes Soros such a target. None of those attacking Soros can say what Soros's interest is, what is this evil deed that Soros wants to do against us. He has promoted foreign interests, but what are these foreign interests expressed in, what do they consist of - should there be democrats here or should authoritarianism come here, and who will be the exponent of this authoritarianism? Usually only the name of Ivo Prokopiev is mentioned, but he is not a figure of power in Bulgaria, around whom there is even a debate about his place in the hierarchical system of Bulgarian society.
It is obvious that this is a battle against an empty frame, the goal being to create negative solidarity in favor of one or another type of authoritarian figure. Let us not forget that in the end, civil society can always defend democracy precisely with civil means, if it understands who is telling the truth."