Bulgaria election: Ex-President Radev secures landslide victory

Bulgaria’s former President Rumen Radev hailed a “victory of hope” after preliminary official results showed his coalition had won the country’s parliamentary election.

Bulgarians cast their ballots on Sunday for the eighth time in five years, after mass protests led to the removal of the previous conservative government in December last year.

Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria party had won 44.7 percent of the vote with 91.7 percent of ballots counted, putting it on course to govern alone, although he has not ruled out forming a coalition with a pro-European bloc or a smaller party.

The result placed Progressive Bulgaria well ahead of the pro-European We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) coalition on 13.2 percent, while the once-dominant GERB party of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov stood at 13.4 percent.

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

Borissov congratulated Radev but cautioned that “winning elections is one thing, governing is another”.

Radev, a left-leaning eurosceptic, stepped down from the presidency in January, after nine years, to launch his bid to become prime minister. He had backed the anticorruption protests that saw hundreds of thousands of largely young people take to the streets in December, and promised to get rid of the “oligarchic governance model”.

“We will do everything possible not to allow us to go [to elections] again. It is ruinous for Bulgaria,” Radev told reporters after the exit poll was released. “We are ready to consider different options so that Bulgaria can have a regular and stable government.”

The Balkan country has seen fragmented parliaments in recent years, with coalitions failing to last more than a year since 2021.

Turnout exceeded 50 percent, the highest since April 2021, according to polling agency Market Links. Authorities had urged voters to cast ballots amid concerns over vote buying.

In recent weeks, police said they seized more than 1 million euros ($1.1m) in raids linked to vote buying and detained hundreds of people, including local councillors and mayors.

Radev has called for renewing ties with Moscow and criticised supplying Ukraine with weapons to fend off Russia’s invasion. He also opposed the 10-year defence agreement signed between Bulgaria and Ukraine in March, and has been accused by critics of being too pro-Russian.

Bulgaria’s election comes in the wake of Viktor Orban’s defeat in Hungary last week after 16 years in power. The right-wing prime minister lost to Peter Magyar’s centre-leaning opposition Tisza party, which swept 70 percent of the seats in parliament.

Bulgaria joined the European Union in 2007 and adopted the euro as its currency in January this year.