Pro-Russian Radev Wins Bulgaria Election, Raising EU Concerns

Pro-Russian candidate and former president Rumen Radev has won Bulgaria's snap elections held on Sunday, securing approximately 37-39% of the vote according to exit polls, making his party Bulgaria Progresista the clear winner in the country's eighth parliamentary election in five years. Despite the victory, Radev, 62, a former Air Force commander, will need to form a coalition government as he fell short of an outright majority. The conservative party GERB, led by three-time former Prime Minister Boiko Borisov, came in second with around 16% of the vote. Bulgaria, which adopted the euro as its official currency in January, is the poorest member of the European Union and has struggled with political instability, having cycled through seven prime ministers in the past five years. Radev's victory has raised concerns in Brussels about potential shifts in the country's foreign policy orientation, particularly regarding support for Ukraine against Russian aggression. The former president has condemned EU sanctions on Russia, argued that military aid to Kyiv prolongs the conflict, and suggested Bulgaria could play a role in reviving relations with the Kremlin based on shared Slavic identity and Orthodox religion. He may now seek to negotiate an agreement with the pro-European coalition Continuemos el Cambio-Bulgaria Democrática, though significant divergences exist on foreign policy matters. The Movement for Rights and Freedoms, led by oligarch Delyan Peevski, who is sanctioned for corruption by the United States and the United Kingdom, placed fourth with approximately 14% of the vote, while the far-right pro-Russian party Vazrazhdane secured around 5.3%. Young voters from Generation Z, many of whom participated in large-scale protests last December that brought down the previous government, expressed concern about Bulgaria potentially sliding toward illiberal influence. Activists warned that the repeated inability to form a viable government has deepened institutional fatigue and enabled acceptance of totalitarian narratives. The electoral campaign was marred by accusations of vote buying, hundreds of arrests, and investigations into electoral fraud, while independent organizations reported an increase in Russian disinformation content targeting Bulgarian social media users. Radev, who resigned from the presidency in January to run, campaigned on promises to fight endemic corruption and the so-called oligarchic model he called the "Peevski-Borissov" regime.