" ;Revival" stopped a center for people with intellectual disabilities in Varna. Panicking with invasions of migrant criminals, with the pushing of the Shipka monument and more. And none of that is true. But apparently many are catching on.
In 1991, the TV show "Ku-Ku" startled millions of Bulgarians with the "news" that at the "Kozloduy" NPP there is an accident. Thirty years later, the "Revival" party uses the same matrix to prey on voters through their fears. This hook has a great bite. "Revival" stops a center for people with intellectual disabilities in a Varna neighborhood, sows panic with invasions of migrant criminals, with the blowing up of the monument to Shipka, with the removal of "I am Bulgarian" from the textbooks and with LGBT propaganda in a Sofia high school. And none of that is true.
Why scared people believe fakes
But misinformation instills fear and, most importantly, creates a sense of threat through exaggerated and manipulative images. And scared people believe fakes and unproven claims even more because they are panicked and don't check the facts. This in turn leads them to join groups that share similar concerns and uncritically accept the opinions and ideas presented there. The reason is that they develop the so-called tendency or confirmation bias - seek information that supports their fears and ignore evidence that contradicts them. In addition, they turn to politicians offering easy solutions to the non-existent threats they themselves have produced.
The result - 35 deputies, elected with the votes of 325,466 people on October 27, which gave the national populists of "Revival" third place - less than a percent after PP-DB.
Where are the migrants
In a furious campaign ahead of the June 9 election, the leader of the "Revival" Kostadin Kostadinov explained that "according to the information of "Vazrazhdane" more than 300 criminals and recidivists have already been returned to the territory of Bulgaria, and the total number is expected to reach at least 3,000 people by the end of the year". He burst out with this statement at the end of February this year, and only a day later the State Agency for Refugees announced that for the whole of 2023, a total of 564 refugees from European countries were returned to Bulgaria under the current Dublin Regulation, and during 2022 - five times less. The DAB explained at the time that there were no agreements for thousands of migrants to be returned, as some even threatened the number of 6,000 Syrians and Afghans.
None of what Kostadinov announced before the microphones months ago and was uncritically rebroadcast, came true. Bulgaria has not agreed to take back illegal migrants in exchange for air and water Schengen, nor has it turned into "the largest refugee camp in the world, in which Bulgarians will gradually become a minority". No thousands of Syrians and Afghans have been readmitted. For the first two months, there are 192, and among them there is no "criminal garbage" at all. - "rapists, pimps, drug pushers", with whom Kostadinov was threatening.
"The Dangerous" disabled people
Municipal councilors from the group of "Revival" in Varna, they used a subscription of nearly 1,000 residents of the "Vazrazhdane" district; in the city against the construction of a new day care center for 60 people with intellectual disabilities on a free municipal plot of 6.7 acres. "Thank you" of the efforts of "Vazrazhdane", the budget committee of the municipal council in Varna stopped the project, as it postponed the allocation of the necessary BGN 140 thousand for design. And the advisors from "Revival" in principle, they were not against such a project, but it should be on a different terrain.
The municipality of Varna applied for several social services - residential care for adults with intellectual disabilities and a center for specialized support for people with disabilities and their families, but risks running out of European funds for the houses.
From "Revival" are re-using refugee fears, claiming that in a few years the social service could very easily become "some kind of refugee center or sold out to our people".
Shipka's monument still stands
At the beginning of the year, Kostadin Kostadinov scolded the supporters of "Vazrazhdane" that the monument to Shipka would be demolished - and the fate of the MOCHA (Monument of the Red Army of Occupation) in the center of Sofia would follow. In reality, the monument was being repaired, which would last for three years.
Even then, Kostadinov was exposed as a lie, as several media carried out an investigation, Dr. Chavdar Angelov - director of the national park-museum "Shipka - Buzludzha" was quoted as saying that not a word could be said about demolition. The website Factcheck.bg has repeatedly exposed false claims fabricated by nationalist and pro-Russian organizations, including "Revival".
And Kostadin Kostadinov has already changed the plate with the protrusions to something known only in "Vazrazhdane". LGBT propaganda in Bulgarian schools.
Horror commercial break
Besides the horror with the refugees, Shipka's excavators and LGBT propaganda in schools, the leader of "Vazrazhdane" more and more frequently propagandizes in his public appearances the power of the BRICS union and the billions of euros that China is ready to pour into the "One Belt One Road" initiative. Recently on bTV, he even compared it to the Marshall Plan money that the United States allocated to rebuild Europe destroyed by World War II. "It is about over 30 billion euros for projects potentially related to Bulgaria, Serbia has fixed its infrastructure," he explained.
But "missed" the most important - that Serbia has accumulated debt in the amount of billions of euros as a result of the Chinese practice of tying investments to credit schemes. These loans cover projects for highways, railways and energy infrastructure. China has become one of Serbia's key creditors and economic partners. But with Chinese loans accounting for more than 10% of Serbia's external debt, analysts warn of significant financial dependence given the rising costs of servicing it. Kostadinov does not mention how Montenegro was looking for 900 million euros so that Chinese dependencies would not bankrupt it.
Is "Revival" must not register as a foreign agent - as in its own bill, which regulated organizations and individuals receiving funding from abroad...
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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.