Kremlin-friendly Rumen Radev wins Bulgaria election in landslide

Bulgaria appears headed for its most decisive political reset in decades after former president Rumen Radev, a critic of the European Union who has urged a renewal of ties with Russia, won an outright majority in parliamentary elections, near complete official results showed.

Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria alliance captured 44.7% of the vote in yesterday’s election, with 91.7% of ballots counted, according to official figures, leaving the grouping on track to secure about 130 seats in the 240-member parliament.

The sweeping result would deliver Bulgaria’s first single-party parliamentary majority since 1997, when a centre-right, pro-European bloc prevailed.

The vote could bring an end to nearly five years of instability in the EU’s poorest member state, where governments have risen and fallen since 2021, when anti-graft demonstrations toppled the conservative administration of pro-European leader Boyko Borissov.

“PB has won unequivocally – a victory of hope over distrust, a victory of freedom over fear,” Mr Radev told reporters outside his party’s headquarters in Sofia.

He said Bulgaria would “make every effort to continue on its European path”.

“But believe me, a strong Bulgaria and a strong Europe need critical thinking and pragmatism. Europe has fallen victim to its own ambition to be a moral leader in a world with new rules,” the former air force general added.

‘Unequivocal winner’

Mr Radev has pledged to dismantle what he calls the Balkan country’s “oligarchic governance model” in the nation of 6.5 million people.

He also threw his support behind anti-corruption protests last year that helped bring down the most recent conservative-backed government.

Boryana Dimitrova of the Alpha Research polling agency told AFP that Mr Radev had emerged as an “unequivocal winner”.

Mr Borissov, who dominated Bulgarian politics for nearly a decade, congratulated Mr Radev yesterday but warned that “winning elections is one thing, governing is another”.

Boyko Borissov led the country virtually uninterrupted for close to a decade

Mr Borissov, 65, has rejected the idea that Mr Radev offers anything “new”, while stressing his own party’s “extremely pro-European position”, including backing for Ukraine and the EU.

Mr Radev, by contrast, has argued for “practical relations with Russia, based on mutual respect and equal treatment”.

He has criticised a ten-year defence agreement signed last month between Bulgaria and Ukraine, which has been fighting Russia’s full-scale invasion since 2022.

He has also opposed sending Bulgarian arms to Ukraine, although he has said he would not deploy the country’s veto to block EU decisions.

High turnout

Turnout topped 50%, the highest level since April 2021, Dobromir Zhivkov, director of the Market Links agency, told AFP.

That marked a sharp rise from the 2024 election, when participation slid to just 39% amid deep public disillusionment with politics.

“Everything simply has to change,” Stiliana Andonova, a retired engineer, told AFP after voting in Sofia, pointing to concerns about corruption and the judiciary.

Parties across the spectrum had urged Bulgarians to cast ballots in a bid to limit the effect of vote buying.

In recent weeks, police have seized more than one million euros in operations targeting vote buying and detained hundreds of people, among them local councillors and mayors.