Bulgarian Populist Euroscepticism: The Unavoidable Russian Dimension

Abstract

This analysis contextualises Bulgarian Euroscepticism by a spatial-temporal approach. Historical-geographical overlays have their temporal continuities across political regimes, and the location determines the political process. The attitude towards Russia has been crucial in shaping the political system of Bulgaria. The superimposition of factors such as historical and cultural ties, close relationships at the individual level, and economic ties, determined also by geopolitical sites, explain the attitudes towards Russia in Bulgarian society. This analysis does not fit explicitly in any of the familiar Eurosceptic typologies. However, it proposes a typologisation of Bulgarian populism and uses it to locate Bulgarian Euroscepticism along the Europe–Russia axis, demonstrating the importance of historical and geographical contexts or temporal overlaps and locations to the understanding of the national specificities of Euroscepticism.