In a recent Eurobarometer survey, 58 percent of Bulgarian respondents said they did not like old people.
The daily Standart (October 17) comments:
“In the past the elderly were respected for their role in preserving tradition and served the youths as an example. Today they are treated like dinosaurs who can’t adapt to modern times. People make fun of them and complain that their pensions are a burden on the state.
“This point of view has become established in the difficult times since the fall of communism. Seniors are blamed for tolerating the totalitarian regime and for not being able to have a Mercedes and a villa on the Riviera for each of their offspring. And they are blamed for the shambles of post-communist reality known as the transformation in which their children and grandchildren have to live.”
