COVID-19

The article is an attempt to conceptualize the escalating political crisis in the since 7th July 2020. This is the most significant domestic political crisis of a structural-functional type, after the landmark for the Bulgarian transition, crisis of 1996-1997. The research interest is also provoked by the fact that the current attempt for a radical political change is taking place in the context of the WHO-declared global pandemic of COVID-19. By itself, the pandemic could be categorized as a symbolic-propaganda crisis. On one hand, it is both an environment (domestic and international) for the manifestation of the political crisis, and on the other hand, it could be considered as a kind of “trigger”. This synchronous “superimposition” of crises of different order and nature necessitates a critical rethinking of the typological classification of domestic political crises developed by the author more than ten years ago. This is the main purpose of the article.

The paper deals with the interaction of two processes in the European politics: the expansion of the radical right and the outburst of the COVID-19 pandemic. The influential interpretation that the first stage of the coronacrisishas registered the radical right’s failure to use the pandemic politically, is being examined. The text tries to demonstrate that the radical right’s inconsistency and ineffectiveness are genuine, but they do not thwart the classical agenda of ultranationalism, antiliberalism, populism and traditionalism and their reaffirmation in these new conditions. Moreover, the governmental responses to the pandemic in Europe encourage the radical right’s penetration in a new paradoxical field, the defence of democracy. It is concluded that the first months of 2020 have not eroded the ideological potential of this part of the political spectrum and consequently have not destroyed its chances for political rise without predetermining them.