Bulgaria enters uncharted territory as Radev wins big

Preliminary results show that former President Rumen Radev has won Bulgaria's general election with a clear majority and the biggest result for a single party since 1997.

Will Bulgaria finally get a stable government?

With a sweeping victory and a clear majority for former President Rumen Radev and diminished support for established parties, the result of Bulgaria 's eighth parliamentary election in five years is set to redraw the country's political map.

Defying pre-election polls that predicted yet another potential coalition government, Rumen Radev's Progressive Bulgaria stands at 44.7% of the vote, with 96% of the ballots officially counted.

This would give the party an absolute majority in parliament — the first political force to achieve this on its own since 1997.

The result raises expectations of an end to the country's cycle of short-lived coalition governments, as Radev pledges to crack down on corruption, tackle inflation and pursue a more independent foreign policy within the EU — one that does not exclude dialogue with Russia.

"Progressive Bulgaria has won decisively.

This is a victory of hope over mistrust, a victory of freedom over fear," Radev said following the release of the first parallel count results, adding that "The people rejected the complacency and arrogance of the old parties and did not succumb to lies and manipulation."
Established parties lag far behind
With 96% of votes counted, the runaway victory of Progressive Bulgaria has already brought major change: Just five parties are set to enter parliament compared with nine after the last election.

The official members of the previous coalition — GERB, the Bulgarian Socialist Party and the There is Such a People party — were punished severely by voters.

The center-right GERB party led by three-time Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, has for the first time in its history dropped below 20%.

It currently stands at 13.4%, putting it in second place and just narrowly ahead of the opposition liberal PP-DB party , which got 12.8% of the vote.

This major political shift follows last December's mass protests against Borissov and Delyan Peevski, the leader of the DPS party, which supported the previous government without formally being part of it and was accused of pulling the strings from behind the scenes.

Protesters accused both men of being the main enablers of corruption in the country.

The US and UK have imposed sanctions on Peevski for alleged corruption.

DPS currently stands at 6.6%, down from 11.5% in 2024.

There is Such a People got less than 1%.

After polling stations closed, the Bulgarian Interior Ministry announced that DPS and GERB ranked first and second in official reports of vote-buying, generating 631 and 318 reports respectively.

The runup to the election was marked by a large-scale crackdown on vote buying.

The Interior Ministry has said that it seized over €1.2 million ($1.41 million) earmarked for buying votes and detained over 370 suspected vote buyers.

"I am convinced that what has been seized is only a very small part of the whole," Interior Minister Emil Dechev told DW, adding "We have about 50 individuals with immunity who are participating in the elections and for whom we have evidence of involvement in election crimes."
For the first time since the first democratic elections in post-communist Bulgaria in 1990, the Bulgarian Socialist Party (BSP), which was part of the previous coalition government, failed to enter parliament, falling below the 4% threshold.

The BSP was the political force behind Radev 's rise to prominence and his first presidential bid.

Its core voters switched camps and supported Radev, who also attracted voters from the far-right pro-Russian Revival party.

Although Revival's support fell sharply, dropping from 13.3% in 2024 to 4.3%, according to the official count, it is still set to enter parliament.

Radev's in-tray is very full, and experts say he will have to hit the ground running.

Two top priorities will be the passing of a budget for 2026 — the first since Bulgaria joined the eurozone on January 1 — and the introduction of measures to combat inflation linked to the war in the Middle East.

"I think that there are two big expectations in our society: one for justice and the question of judicial reform.

The second one is for stability," said Antony Todorov, political science professor at New Bulgarian University on Bulgarian National Television.

While Radev is projected to win a clear majority of 130-132 MPs in the 240-seat parliament, he will need the support of other parties for any key judicial or constitutional changes that require a two-thirds majority (160 seats).

Radev, a former air force general who was president of Bulgaria for nine years before stepping down in January to run in the election, has pledged to combat what he calls the "oligarchic governance model" in the country.

According to polls, Progressive Bulgaria attracted support from Gen-Z voters, including those who protested in December , middle-aged voters and voters over 60.

He also won the overseas vote, in what is considered the highest expat turnout in years.

Around 67% of those who did not vote in the last parliamentary election also cast their ballots for Radev.

This is not the first time a new party has won a Bulgarian general election.

Two parties have in recent years capitalized on voters' willingness to support new actors in the hope of change.

However, neither of them managed to secure a majority, which weakened their ability to deliver on campaign promises and resulted in a loss of support.

Although Radev himself has never led a political party and his structures remain relatively weak, with the movement behind him composed largely of unfamiliar experts, sports figures and economists, the fact that he has a majority puts him in a position to implement his agenda.

Throughout the campaign, Radev and his party refused to condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin 's aggression in Ukraine , seeking to appeal to their pro-Russian leaning electorate and prompting backlash from other voters who feared the country could be diverted from its pro-European course.

Radev explained that he would not veto or torpedo joint decisions by the bloc but would instead opt out of them if he found them damaging to Bulgaria's national interest.

Over the years, he has advocated for the resumption of energy imports from Russia and opposed military aid to Ukraine .

Yet Progressive Bulgaria tried to calm voters by downplaying accusations that Radev could become Putin's new Trojan Horse within the EU, as Valerie Hayer, leader of the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, told the Financial Times .

"A strong Bulgaria in a strong Europe needs critical thinking; it needs pragmatism," Radev said on election night, adding that the bloc needs to focus on energy supplies and industrialization.

"Europe has fallen victim to its own ambition to be a moral leader in a world without rules," he said.

With Bulgaria entering new and uncharted territory under a party yet to define its European political family, the country may be heading toward a stable government for the first time since 2021.

What exactly this will mean for both Bulgarian foreign policy and the EU remains to be seen.

Much will depend on what direction Radev actually takes once in power.