Leftist, rightist and vise versa

At the dawn of the fresh yet highly controversial and not-so-well-understood Bulgarian democracy, people split between the red of the left and the blue of the right. It was truly awful—families divorced over politics, brothers fought one another, neighbors stopped speaking to each other. Some were clinging to memories of the socialist regime, while others held onto hopes for a better democratic future.

But to see this happening these days is a real surprise to me. The whole world is in turmoil – two wars right at our borders, superpowers shaken by upcoming and past elections, economies struggling with post-COVID chaos, and financial upheavals affecting both the ultra-rich and the extremely poor. And here in Bulgaria, on the edge of Europe, people no longer see politics in only blue or red but every possible color in the paint catalog. Perhaps it will continue until the day we realize we are all the same color because we all want better and more meaningful lives. Hopefully, that day will come soon.