Bulgaria held its eighth parliamentary election in five years, and initial results show that former President Rumen Radev, who himself dismissed the government at the beginning of the year, has won overwhelming support from voters, writes the BBC.
With more than 60% of the votes counted, Rumen’s Progressive Bulgaria party is in the lead with 45% of the vote. Progressive Bulgaria has overtaken the liberal PP-DB coalition (15% of the vote) and former Prime Minister Boyko Borisov’s GERB party, which won 13% of the vote.
The snap elections were called after the previous government failed to agree on a controversial budget bill in December, sparking widespread protests in the country, which were also supported by then-President Radev. In his victory speech, Radev said that the people had rejected the complacency and arrogance of the old parties and had not fallen victim to lies and manipulation. He thanked them for their support and promised to build a strong Bulgaria in a strong Europe.
The politician stressed that Europe is in dire need of critical thinking, pragmatic action and good results, especially the need to build a new security architecture and regain industrial strength and competitiveness, which he said would be Bulgaria’s main contribution to Europe.
Radev, 62, is seen as a pragmatic but pro-Kremlin politician who has criticized the European Union
and called for a constructive dialogue with Moscow. He has also spoken out against Bulgaria’s military support for Ukraine.
The former president’s election campaign was largely based on domestic politics, promising to fight corruption and restore stability in government after years of weak coalitions.
The Progressive Bulgaria party’s results are impressive, but they will not be enough to form a government on its own. In a speech on the evening of the 19th of April, Radev said that he was looking for coalition partners.
Bulgaria, through third countries such as Romania, is a significant supplier of weapons and ammunition to Ukraine. This has allowed the country’s arms industry, which has been in decline since the collapse of the Soviet Union, to recover. However, Radev has been opposed to the sale of Bulgarian weapons stored since the Soviet period to Ukraine since 2022, on the grounds that it will only prolong a war that Ukrainians cannot win. Similar arguments have been made by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who lost the election a week ago.
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