Slavi Trifonov is dangerously clever with the Prosecutor General

Martin Nikolaev

In recent days, you have surely noticed the Facebook buzz surrounding Slavi Trifonov's meetings with Prosecutor General Sotir Tsatsarov. The opinions on the social network seem to be that this is a terrible blunder by the showman, who has tied up with the corrupt Prosecutor General, and that this will be the end of the referendum and his political ambitions. In fact, the exact opposite is happening before our eyes - Slavi Trifonov has once again tied up everyone's skates.

To understand what the political effect of this situation will be at the end of the day, we need to keep a few things in mind:

1. Majoritarian voting is supported by a huge number of voters - over 2.5 million people.
2. This is mostly a "fuck everyone" protest vote, even though no one admits it.
3. In the evening, Slavi Trifonov gives them relatively meaningful arguments with which they can rationalize to themselves and others why this is not a protest vote, but a "conscious and intelligent choice for the future of the state."
4. There is no politically meaningful and well-represented opposition to Trifonov's arguments.

These 2.5 million people will see that Slavi Trifonov has personally entered (this happens rarely and is not accidental) Sotir Tsatsarov - the hero enters the lair of the dragon. After their meeting, the Prosecutor General not only testified to his readiness to fulfill his obligations under the complaint filed by the initiative committee, but also personally expressed full support for Trifonov's political demands. Those who disapprove of the referendum (the minority) see in this the downfall of Trifonov and a conspiracy between him and the biggest villain in the country. Unfortunately for them, those who disapprove of the referendum are negligible and it doesn't matter what they think.

And what do those who approve of the referendum think? They also do not have a high opinion of the Prosecutor General, who enjoys a rating of 5% in society. Cognitive dissonance arises in the minds of those who support Trifonov – they and their hero (Slavi) find themselves on the same side of the barricade with the villain Tsatsarov. Cognitive dissonance creates mental tension and a person frantically begins to look for a way to calm it down. There are several options:

1. Those supporting the referendum admit that they were wrong and are moving to the side of those who do not support the referendum.
2. Those supporting the referendum rationalize Tsatsarov's behavior with some infernal plan by the MRF, believing that he is simply pretending to be on their side of the barricade.
3. They perceive that their champion Trifonov has defeated/convinced the biggest villain in the country of the rightness of his sacred cause.

The first option is not particularly likely – none of us like to admit that we were wrong, as this triggers the feeling of shame, which is one of the strongest motivators in human psychology. Not to mention that Trifonov has persistently brought many arguments why supporting the referendum was not a mistake.

The second option is more likely than the first, but it requires a lot of mental energy to come up with a hellish plan – one that has not been hyped in the media so far. People hate to think, and therefore those supporting the referendum would prefer another, easier option.

This is precisely the third one – the hero Trifonov, who defeated the dragon Tsatsarov. And he is so easy, because Trifonov personally went to the prosecutor's office, entered the beast's lair, took pictures and gave interviews in its dark corridors (and not outside in the light, there are no coincidences here either) and emerged victorious. The showman (understanding reality TV) visualizes in the best way what he wants his followers to believe in – a childhood fairy tale that has been told to them hundreds of times and which they tell their children and grandchildren today.

And they will believe him. By the end of the three-day Trifonov-Tsatsarov saga, the victorious march of the hero Trifonov against the beast Tsatsarov, which ended with the victory of the sacred cause/referendum against the darkest forces in the state, will remain in the minds of the vast majority of about 2.5 million voters.

There are two lessons to be learned from the whole thing. The first is that Slavi Trifonov is not just smart – he is dangerously smart. This is a man who understands human psychology extremely well and can accordingly convince huge masses of people of his own positions. The likelihood that Trifonov is a political grandmaster with skills close to those of Trump is growing. The second lesson is that the fairy tales about heroes, dragons and golden apples that our grandparents told us are not at all accidental – and we will talk about why this is so another time.

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