Out of his own mouth came the words that he was like the Medicis and the Borgias. “If they hadn’t been patrons to Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci the two would have become house painters in Naples at most.” Bulgarian men of culture couldn’t dream of a better patron of the arts, he said. Slavcho Binev, newly elected chair of the National Assembly’s Culture and Media Committee unleashed a fresh wave of protest.

They say people born under the sign of Sagittarius are happy people, because they shoot first and paint the bull’s eye around the arrow later. Slavcho Binev, born under the sign of the archer is apparently a happy man – in fact he had wanted to chair the European Affairs and Oversight of European Funds Committee but was given Culture and the Media instead. But as, by his own estimation, he is the man best-suited to this post, if not nationwide, then at least inside the National Assembly, this is the place where Slavcho Binev belongs. However, a host of journalists and artists don’t agree and the centre of Sofia has now come to resemble the protest days of 2013 when hundreds of people would gather around parliament building shouting “Resign!” Because they know well what his other stock-in-trade is – a man who was mob-connected in the early 1990’s, owner of more than 40 night clubs and patron of chalga music – whose vulgar texts and primitive rhythm has come to be identified with a certain style of life. In Binev’s chalga clubs you will find mobsters galore, but never a finer class of visitors.

49-year old Slavcho Binev is multiple Taekwondo champion of Bulgaria and the Balkans and since 1996 has been deputy chairman of the Bulgarian Taekwondo Federation; since 2003 he has been chair of the Bulgarian Olympic Committee’s Committee for Social Assistance to Athletes. None of which have anything whatsoever to do with culture or the media. But as described above, Binev’s biography is incomplete – he is also a politician. In 2007 he became a member of the European Parliament on the electoral list of Ataka party, and after a series of scandals with party leader Volen Siderov and numerous attempts to stay on in politics with his own political formation, he entered Bulgarian parliament by the skin of his teeth – as MP from the Patriotic Front. And it is as a member of parliament representing a party that supports the current government that Slavcho Binev came to head the Culture and Media Committee. This means that in the hands of the Taekwondo champion lie the budgets of the state theatres and cultural organizations, as well as of the Bulgarian National TV and the Bulgarian National Radio.

Binev’s appointment to the post drew a sharp reaction from the two public broadcasters. In a protest declaration the Bulgarian National TV and the Bulgarian National Radio explained exactly why they will not take part in the committee headed by the “patron of the arts” even though it is discussing their own budgets for next year. The journalists, but also writers, actors, film directors, artists, composers, musicians are firmly standing their ground. Because Slavcho Binev is the epitome of the upstart effrontery of all vulgarians who think the millions they sit on give them the right to call themselves “aristocrats” or “patrons of art.” And God forbid that his appointment to the post should be an illustration of the new style in politics the new parliamentary majority has been bragging about! A cynicism that is so very reminiscent of the events of 18 months ago – and we all know what fruit those events bore. In protest against this appointment, prominent stage director Alexander Morfov resigned as director of the Ivan Vazov National Theatre. Other resignations are sure to follow. Whether Slavcho Binev will see these signs for what they are, only time will tell. Whether he will step down, as Delyan Peevski did last year – we shall see. But one thing is certain - all that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

English Milena Daynova