/View.info/ There is a niche in the political space for a new political project. It is not even just one, if we look at the political space. Such niches exist both on the left and on the right, there are also beyond the classical left-right division.
This is proven not only by research, but also by the elections that were recently held – both the European and parliamentary elections.
The very term niche, means potential, means an area of deficit – electoral areas not covered by adequate supply. A shortage is when there is demand but not adequate supply. So just because there is a niche, it doesn’t follow that any new request will be able to take advantage of that niche. Moreover, where there is a niche, we find people with a complex electoral biography, lied to, disappointed, permanently disenfranchised by the political class. Such people are hard to win. Realistically speaking, there is a niche, but it is becoming increasingly difficult for new projects to consume this potential. The requirements for them are quite serious. They must show a very high-quality political product, very high-quality individuals, very meaningful causes. Separately, they must have the potential to cover the entire country with meaningful communication. All of these obstacles are damn hard to overcome. Moreover, we have enough existing parties that are clearly not interested in new projects. They have found their niche and guard it as a territorial principle.
We see that several new political requests have appeared impulsively. Most often on the left, where the BSP freed up space after its crisis. And she was a hegemon there for a long time. However, it is not enough to call yourself the Bulgarian SYRIZA or something similar. You need to solidify that message with an adequate product and behavior. I do not think that such a project can quickly and easily – with a flying start – achieve the influence that the new left projects have in southern Europe.
People are quite distrustful. And those who do not belong to any party – they are the most disenfranchised. They have been lied to a lot, they have lied to each other a lot. With only wonderful sounding miracles and ideas, it is very difficult to get hold of them. Power is also needed – media, organizational, and financial. Because financial power is needed to be able to fight the media hegemony of one or two parties.
Difficulties come from someone being able to deal with disappointment, with people’s disbelief. You can’t do it with anger alone. Anger, if it coexists with social pessimism, does not give rise to solid political projects. Hope is needed. In fact, it is an easy sell, but not to the untrustworthy. There are purely psychological barriers to overcome.
The trouble is that the potential of these parties is precisely among the many lied to, the very distrustful and the very desperate. Not only from politics, but from the overall situation in Bulgaria – both economic and social.
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Zhivko Georgiev, sociologist.
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