Bulgaria

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…

SOFIA — Bulgaria has become the 21st country to adopt the euro, giving up the lev at midnight in a moment that drew both celebration and unease in a nation divided over the change and anxious about inflation and political instability. As the clock struck 12, images of Bulgarian euro coins were projected onto the central bank’s facade in Sofia. “I warmly welcome Bulgaria to the euro family,” European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde said, calling the single currency a “powerful symbol” of shared values and collective…

Bulgaria will adopt the euro on Jan. 1, retiring the lev and joining the eurozone as its 21st member in a move that promises deeper integration with the European Union and a seat at the European Central Bank’s rate-setting table. The long-awaited shift, two years after Croatia’s entry, will extend the common currency to more than 350 million people. Authorities say Bulgaria met the formal entry criteria this year, including targets on inflation, budget deficit, long-term borrowing costs and exchange-rate stability. The…

Bulgaria will adopt the euro on Thursday, becoming the 21st member of the currency union in a move supporters say will anchor the economy and deepen ties to the West — even as a skeptical public fears higher prices and fresh instability. The shift ends more than two decades of operating under a strict currency board, in which the lev was first pegged to the German mark and later to the euro after the single currency’s rollout in 2002. Joining now gives Sofia a seat at the table where monetary policy decisions are made, a…

International reporting…

Before the military coup in the middle of a challenge to Ibrahim Boubacar Keita's regime, the demonstrations followed each other with overflows in the protesters and also a murderous repression by the police. Minusma examined in detail what was really going on these days, from 10 to 13 July. She has just published her findings.…