Parliament has rejected a motion of no confidence in the Cabinet. Did anyone notice? I have to admit that if it wasn’t part of my professional duties or part of the habit that I have developed over the past few years of watching news bulletins, I would not have noticed either. I remember the times from 10 years ago when every session of Parliament was broadcast live on the only TV channel in the country. Excited by the recent changes, people watched lawmakers in action, who themselves took full advantage of the fact and always put on a good show. It was great time for making jokes back then, and there were plenty of amusing moments. Today one can see MPs in session once a week, during working hours on a Friday, and what happens is the subject of little, if no, interest. Why is that?

A man, wiser and older than me, 10 years ago told me that things in Bulgaria would get better when people stopped taking an interest in the political life of the country and when who was in power made little difference. I don’t know if Bulgarian society has reached this phase today, but it was clear that despite the good weather on February 22, the united opposition had managed to gather little more than 3000 people, who barely managed to fill the square in front of Parliament. Does this mean that everything is going perfectly fine in the country and that the Government is doing its job so well that people fully agree with it and see no reason to protest?

Or maybe people are so disillusioned with politics and think that little depends on them?

I would go for a combination of the two possibilities. Yes, there are worrying things such as the level of poverty, salaries, prices, corruption allegations, bureaucracy and lack of transparency, but one cannot deny that some of these things do not entirely depend on what the Government is doing. Salaries, for example, depend on how much work is being done and you can’t blame the Government for the low level of productivity workers show.

At the same time, Bulgaria might have indeed attained a certain level of maturity in its development. Ten years ago, getting hundreds of thousands of people out on the streets was not a problem, and protest rallies were something of a national sport for Bulgarians.

Today such a crowd can be organised only if there is a problem that directly concerns its well being, as was the case with the teachers’ strike last year. It seems that the days of politicians marching in front of thousands of people calling for the resignation of the government are more or less over. At least this was what the no confidence motion showed. If things were as bad as the opposition said, why wasn’t the square in front of Parliament shaking under the feet of thousands of protesters?

I am far from defending the Government, for it wasn’t this Government for which I voted three years ago. But when the opposition fails to organise a proper rally, only one thought comes to my mind, that there is something wrong somewhere in its motivation. A scary assumption is there as well. Maybe the opposition likes the country’s political reality the way it is today? Maybe it doesn’t want it to change? Maybe it does not see itself as an alternative to the Government. And maybe it is not capable of suggesting anything new to me as a voter.

It is a frightening thought because I can understand people showing little interest in politics, but I cannot accept that the right-wing opposition has the same attitude.