The Bulgaria Progressive coalition, led by former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev, has won the parliamentary elections held this Sunday, the eighth in just five years, by surpassing 44% of the ballots and opening a gap of more than 30 percentage points over its rivals. With this result, the pro-Russian leader's alliance comfortably secures an absolute majority by positioning itself around 131 out of the 240 seats that make up the National Assembly.
With 78.2% of the votes already counted, Radev's party garners 44.5% of the ballots, according to data released by the Central Electoral Commission. Thus, the coalition clearly improves upon the projections from up to four previous polls, which placed it in a range of between 38% and 40% support in these legislative elections.
Far behind, with a difference of more than 30% of the vote, appears the coalition We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB, according to its Bulgarian acronym), which reaches 13.7% of the ballots and would have around 41 seats. It is followed by the conservative bloc Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria-Union of Democratic Forces (GERB-SDS), led by the veteran former prime minister Boyko Borissov, which obtains 13.2% of the support and would be left with about 39 deputies.
In fourth position is Renaissance, which registers 5.9% of the votes and would achieve around 16 seats, while the Movement for Rights and Freedoms (DPS) —headed by Delyan Peevski, sanctioned by the United States and the United Kingdom for alleged corruption— adds 4.4% of the ballots, which would translate into about thirteen parliamentarians.
Although Radev had left the door open to a pact with PP-DB if necessary to guarantee governability, the count has drawn a much more favorable scenario for the leader of Bulgaria Progressive. The leader has celebrated on social networks an "unappealable victory (...) of hope over distrust, of freedom over fear," as well as "of morality."
"We voted actively, we overcame apathy, but distrust in Bulgarian politics remains high and this is only the first step towards restoring the social contract," he stressed in a message in which he expressed his gratitude to "the commissions and services that organized these elections," as well as, "in a special way" and in a tone of denunciation, "to the bodies of the Ministry of the Interior that have made enormous efforts in the fight against the shameful phenomenon of vote buying in Bulgaria."
The pro-Russian candidate, who has thanked the "trust" of those who have supported him, has celebrated that, according to him, "the people have rejected the complacency and arrogance of the old parties" and "have not succumbed to lies or manipulation".
Radev, whom many point to as the possible Bulgarian equivalent of Viktor Orbán, maintains a very critical discourse with the elites. At 62 years old, he was commander of the Armed Forces and reached a high military rank before making the definitive leap into politics.
During his term as president, between 2017 and 2026, he maintained constant clashes with Boiko Borissov, one of the most influential leaders in the country, whom he repeatedly reproached for maintaining a "tolerant" attitude towards corruption in the poorest member state of the European Union.