Independent MP Velizar Enchev, who recently parted ways with the Patriotic Front parliamentary coalition over irreconcilable differences, has now founded a new civic movement called Bulgarian Spring. Known in this country as a politician and journalist, Enchev intents to carry through a radical change in Bulgaria because, as he puts it, in these past 25 years the country has suffered 25 major blows that have made it the poorest country in the EU and what is needed now is a new approach to revive the Bulgarian people and make it literate.

The new political leader says that his movement’s ideology aims at “a stiff resistance to savage capitalism in its neoliberal version,” and at fighting the out-and-out swindle in political life. The Bulgarian Spring wants to develop into a political party and defines itself as a left-wing formation, stating at the outset that as such it could only work in partnership in parliament with the left Bulgarian Socialist Party and the nationalist party Ataka because even though they have their differences, they share the same ideas. Velizar Enchev claims out loud that at a local level his new formation will enter in coalition with all opposition parties, movements and associations, thereby indirectly admitting that one of his principal motives in creating the movement is to take part in the forthcoming local elections.

Some observers immediately assumed that the emergence of Bulgarian Spring marks the birth of a Bulgarian version of the Greek SYRIZA. However, its leader Enchev denies this, saying that his formation was closer to the ideas of Hungary’s Prime Minister Orban and his party Fidesz than SYRIZA. Some describe this reaction as “keeping the door ajar” for dissociating his movement if the Greek model falls through. Perhaps the truth lies elsewhere – being a realist, Enchev knows that at future general elections his Bulgarian Spring will not win more than 30 seats which would not be enough for the kind of triumph SYRIZA had.

The leader of the Bulgarian Spring is not concealing the fact that he aims to attract the voters who have, until now cast their votes for the socialists, so he is defining his formation as left-wing. The statements he has been making also convey, albeit delicately worded, elements of the nationalistic ideas that the Ataka nationalists should be wary of. The Bulgarian Socialist Party and Ataka both have cause for concern, because they lost voters at the latest elections and are not in the best of shape. But Enchev would not decline, as he himself puts it, support from the so-called honest voters of the parliamentary forces the Bulgarian Spring does not wish to establish partnership relations with, like the nationalist Patriotic Front, the left party ABV, the Reformist Bloc right coalition or the ruling right party – GERB.

As yet, the political parties have been refraining from any comment on the appearance of the new formation, probably in anticipation of its defining itself more clearly. Yet the emergence of Bulgarian Spring is not to be ignored. At a time of intense political fragmentation in parliament, where there is one left-wing power in opposition (the Bulgarian Socialist Party) and another (ABV) supporting the ruling coalition, a new left project is making its appearance. If the Bulgarian Spring is successful in its undertaking, it may well be the instrument that will take over from ABV and continue the reformatting of the left political spectrum, though with elements of nationalism. If the movement fails we shall witness the continued spawning of left-wing formations in Bulgaria, at the expense of the left idea. In any case, the emergence of the Bulgarian Spring can be seen as one more in the string of attempts to change the depreciated political status quo, whether left or right-wing no matter, with the launching of new political entities.

English version: Milena Daynova