The pandemic interrupted the celebration of my eighteenth birthday, but I was not all too sad about it because the thought of being able to vote in the next elections a few months away kept my spirits high. I was raised on democratic values, which is why election day overshadowed my birthday. From the age of five, my father took me to all the political protests in Bulgaria. If there is one thing you must know about Bulgaria, it is that protests occur every few months with massive demonstrations during the summers.

Since 2020, Bulgaria has gone through five rounds of parliamentary elections in only two years, and I am starting to understand the tiredness and apathy that the majority of Bulgarian citizens feel toward the country’s future. Democratic values have failed miserably in Bulgaria: with only about 41 percent of all eligible citizens voting in the most recent elections held on April 2. Many have started to question the validity of such elections. While we wait for a new government to be formed — which, between the six parties currently in parliament, seems highly unlikely to happen — we can only reflect on the discrepancies around the elections. Cases of broken voting machines, missing and uncounted slips, and paid voters overwhelm the news coverages of both mass and independent media all the time. However, the highlight of these elections is the unexpectedly large support the far-right, pro-Russian, and openly anti-EU and anti-NATO party Vazrazhdane (translated Revival) amassed: it is currently the third power in government with an unprecedented 14 percent of all votes.

While the party was formed in 2014, it only gained popularity and prominence in 2021 when it first entered government with 13 representatives (4.85 percent of total votes). In the last 30 years, there have only been a handful of governments in Bulgaria that were not represented by a nationalist party, so the existence and participation of Vazrazhdane is not surprising or new. What is truly worrisome is that they have achieved the status of a leading party in only two years around a time when extreme nationalist agendas were finally starting to be policed. It is important to note that Bulgaria is one of the countries that still allows for mass Neo-Nazi demonstrations to take place — they have been regularly attended by the members of Vazrazhdane and other far-right parties. It was only this year that the municipality of Sofia actually challenged the so-called Lukov March and prohibited it from happening because of its history of vandalism and civil unrest. But with the rise in pushback against nationalist agendas, the strength of the far-right parties increased proportionally, perhaps even more steeply. Their power has escalated to such an extent that even political parties that are left-leaning or centrist are also starting to co-opt hyper-nationalistic jargon and agendas to gain more supporters. It appears that in Bulgaria, it is only the promise of national salvation and elevation to a higher status, and not a goal or a hope for a better future, that motivates people to vote or even to simply care about the democratic process.

Bulgaria is not an isolated case. Only last year Italy elected its first female prime minister, an avid Mussolini devotee. Anti-Gastarbeiter, in particular anti-Turkish migration, discourse has been on the rise in the Bundestag in Germany. Hungary has become a threat to the overall stability of the EU with PM Orban practically heading a Putin-style dictatorship over the country.The current president of Türkiye, Recep Tayyib Erdogan, has similar authoritarian and anti-Western values. Brexit is a stark reminder that the UK too no longer has an interest in pan-Europeanism, and is instead adopting a more nation-centric approach. What most of these conservative and nationalist politicians and parties share is a fixation with “traditional Christian family values” and fostering an exclusionary us-versus-them sentiment among their electorate.

Europe as a whole is becoming increasingly polarized, and the concerning issue is that it is not just limited to the political class. The citizens of many European countries are also becoming more polarized and frustrated as they navigate the conflict of national vs. international identity. The West fears immigrants from the “stagnant” East; in the East the narrative prevails that the West has an agenda to culturally cleanse all countries from Central Europe to the borders of the continent. The latter is also a possible explanation why nationalist politics in Balkan countries are also almost always equated with pro-Russian ideologies, which stem from their common glorified Soviet past. The war in Ukraine has only contributed to the growing rift between representatives of different political ideologies. A few years ago, the majority of people might have seen the conflict as what it is: an uncalled for attack on a sovereign country. However, with the rise of this national separatist sentiment among governments all across Europe, actions against Putin are purely performative and have the effect of pricking a bear with a needle.

It could be argued that globalization affects individual cultures and different national identities, both of which could not adequately adapt to the changing times, causing purposelessness and confusion. Perhaps it is that political systems in Europe remain reactionary instead of being goal-driven with a set path for development. But these speculations will not lead to any solutions. Bulgarian novelist Georgi Gospodinov has found another explanation for the phenomenon. He diagnoses Europe with a sort of Alzheimer’s: an entire continent overwhelmed by a fast-approaching future but still stuck in an undefined past. Recent events across Europe suggest that he might be right: many Europeans search for a return to the past when they last felt proud of their national identity. A brief lesson in European history will immediately remind us that such a past does not exist, but, indeed, people have started to lose their memories of a war torn and recovering Europe and are nostalgic for an idealized life and propaganda promises that are far from reality.

Educational systems and political discourses have romanticized the past to the point where many countries have been absolved of accountability for some of the most destructive decisions made in recent years. People have forgotten that many African and Southeast Asian states gained their independence mere half a century ago. The colonial past of Western European countries is all but erased at this point, and it feels as if far-right politicians still desire for the reestablishment of a past when the West lived off of slavery. Nobody asks what returning to the past would cost and who is going to pay for it. As for Eastern European countries, the dream of representation and respect from other states fuels hate crimes against marginalized communities perceived as foreign. The region remains highly unstable, hostile and violent, which will only contribute to the already alarming rate of emigration and aging of the population.

This obsession with the romanticized “good old days” of Europe will trump any attempt to develop in the future. With European institutions focused on fixing things so that we go back to an idealized stable past, the challenges of the present remain neglected and unresolved. Covid recovery, climate crisis and refugee crisis are only some of the many issues that need to be addressed promptly, yet governments are immobilized by their own internal divisions and chronic nostalgia. As far-right and populist discourse reigns unregulated and media literacy takes second place to glamorized history lessons, the continent-wide “Alzheimer’s” will continue to advance and affect even younger generations like ours that have no actual recollection of a past different than our present.