A step beyond the transition?

Yes, that’s exactly what the Bulgarians that have been protesting in the streets of Sofia and other major cities for over four weeks now really want. Grasping this idea seems to be the key to understanding the current unrest in that country. There’s a deep desire to be emancipated from the inferno of the so-called transition; a capitalist restoration, in fact. They want to stop being the losers working for the wealth of a tiny group of winners at the top of an oligarchic system. Aggressive anti-communist ideology and the so-called reforms were actually a shock-doctrine-based neoliberal brutal disintegration of the economy, the society and the state.
“The Communists” have been the Boogeyman for the last three decades, so it comes as no surprise now that the Bulgarian PM Borissov, threatened by the protests, is orchestrating massive hysteria, crying that “the Communists are taking over” if he’s ousted. This is of course a lie. The majority of the demonstrating people claim that this is neither a right-wing nor a left-wing protest, but a protest of decent citizens against the mafia.
The main driving force of the protests has been the urban middle class, which is rather right-wing when it comes to their core political views. Even they are tired with “the transition” and the massive devastation that it has brought about. However, it seems to be the subconscious level of the political manifestations that we have been observing for the last month in Bulgaria. Nobody uses the word post-transition, although that seems to be the bottom line. There is a strong desire to leave this huge pathology of “the transition” behind.
Bulgarians demand change, but could this movement provide it? Will the urban middle class, a social group generally supportive of “the transition”, realize their dream of establishing a real liberal-democratic order in Bulgaria without the mafia, without the oligarchs, and without the rampant corruption and poverty? Or will it remain merely a dream? Are those who favored “the transition” capable of opposing its natural effects?
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