Abstract: The author discusses the main changes of the political rhetoric in Bulgaria after 1989: 1) What is the differentia specifica of the Bulgarian post-socialist transition? 2) How the Bulgarian ethnic model influences the political discourse? 3) How the established multiparty system and freedom of speech led to the contradictory language of the different opinions, the street tonality, vulgarity, pornography, but also of the liberal principle of the supremacy of the law? 4) Hate speech – product of the social change and the national mentality of the Bulgarians. 5) Radical negativism to the governing class. 6) Vulgarization and oversimplification of the speech –the bases of the prevailing populism. 7) Metaphors versus the “wooden language”. 8) Euphemistic speaking like a basis of politeness and political correctness; 9) The role of the silence in the political Rhetoric. 10) Devaluation of the democratic terminology and techniques for evasion.

Key words: political rhetoric, transition, freedom of speech, democracy, ethnic model, hate language, argumentation, ad hominem, ad baculum, ex silentio, euphemisms, disphemisms.

Rhetoric and Communications E-journal, Issue 3, March 2012,  http://rhetoric.bg/, ISSN 1314-4464