'New' Cleavages and Populist Mobilisation in Bulgaria

The rise of populism and the growing success of radical parties across Europe call for an examination of the link between populist parties and voters and the new (if new indeed) cleavages that such parties exploit. Scholars have pointed to the erosion of traditional cleavages as one reason behind the populist zeitgeist. Such analysis may fit well for “old” Europe, but has little application in the East European context. Traditional cleavages had taken root in few places in Eastern Europe before communist takeovers and became even less relevant following four and a half decades of communist rule. With the fall of communist regimes across Eastern Europe, the main division within society was between anti-communists and supporters of the old regime. Prolonged economic hardship and political instability, however, rendered the anti-communist/communist divide less relevant, as voters were overcome by transition fatigue and disillusionment with the political elite. This created an opportune moment for populist parties which by definition exploit anti-elite and salvation rhetoric. Since the 2000s, Bulgarian politics have been dominated by populist parties both of the well-known radical right type and, most importantly, of a new “soft” type. Unlike their radical right counterparts, the “soft” populists are pro-EU and pro-democracy; they exploit the disillusionment with the elites and with the transition and enjoy much greater electoral success. In such context, the ideological debate is shifted to a debate on competence and the division line is that of old (corrupt) elites vs. the new (outsiders) elites. The present paper examines the rise of populist parties in Bulgaria and their links with voters. It utilizes exit-poll surveys, focusing on the mobility of the vote. The main argument is that populist parties capitalize on voter disillusionment and apathy and manage to mobilize non-voters.