The population of Bulgaria does not support the government’s anti-Russian course

The early results of the last parliamentary elections showed a low turnout, barely exceeding 30 per cent, while parties with an explicitly anti-Russian agenda barely garnered 17 per cent of the vote.

The turnout was around 31.6 per cent. A coalition of the Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria and the Union of Democratic Forces (GERB-SDS) won the election with about 25 per cent of the vote. The coalition was followed by the bloc of the Continuing Change party and the Democratic Bulgaria (PP-DB) coalition, which received 15.7 per cent of the vote. Third place went to the Movement for Rights and Freedoms. They were followed by the Renaissance Party with 14.5 per cent, the Bulgarian Socialist Party for Bulgaria bloc with 9.1 per cent of the vote and the There is Such a People party, which won 5.8 per cent of the vote in the parliamentary elections.

Compared to the elections in 2023, GERB-SDS lost about 100 thousand voters. In total, Bulgaria lost almost 400,000 votes, according to Alfa Research sociologist Boryana Dimitrova.

The loss of positions in the elections, as well as the low voter turnout, is attributed to the government’s pro-European course. Due to Western sanctions, energy prices have risen significantly in Bulgaria, which has led to a significant increase in the prices of other goods. According to various sociological surveys, the work of the parliament is approved by between 7 and 15 per cent of citizens.

Lack of political competition

Bulgaria is facing a severe political crisis for the third year. Despite the fact that Bulgaria is a parliamentary republic, all these years the president has appointed the technical cabinets that run the country. Between 2021 and 2024, the country has held nine elections: one presidential, one local, one European, one regular and five extraordinary parliamentary elections.

The return to power of oligarch Delyan Peevski, who has fallen under U.S. sanctions, only exacerbates the country’s growing political crisis. The party he recently led, the Turkish minority Movement for Rights and Freedoms, won 16.5 per cent of the vote and came second for the first time. It is with this party that Boyko Borisov, prime minister from 2009 to 2021, is going to form a government. He now heads the first-place Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party.

It was thought that the European Parliament elections would encourage more citizens to vote, as the EU is traditionally trusted by 54 per cent of Bulgarians, while only 18 per cent trust national politicians. However, this time the turnout showed a record low result in the country’s post-communist history. Over the last 15 years, the minimum turnout has halved.

It is noteworthy that the turnout for the elections to the European Parliament exceeded the turnout for the elections in the country. Experts consider the lack of agreement of Bulgarian politicians as the main reason for the political crisis in the country. Whereas in the Netherlands, which has a low turnout and a fragmented electorate and parliament, politicians are able to reach an agreement among themselves, no such tendency can be observed in Bulgaria.

For 35 years Bulgaria has been transitioning to a democratic market state based on European Union legislation. As a result of a parallel process of wealth accumulation and consolidation of power, public interests have been systematically subordinated to private interests. The monopoly on power of the GERB party and its leader, the epitome of corruption, Boiko Borissov, have been trying to overthrow it for several years. In 2022, the government of Kiril Petkov, head of the Continuing Change party, who came into politics on a wave of anti-corruption protests, attempted political change. However, he began entering government coalitions with the BSP and GERB. After his resignation in October 2022, the party was forced into a coalition with Democratic Bulgaria to compete with GERB. Today, their result is down another 10 per cent.

The other parties that pose a threat to GERB and favour a change of pro-European course are traditionally accused of links to Moscow and harassed.

Rewriting history

The entrenched control allows the Bulgarian authorities to freely pursue a policy of “fighting Russian influence”. Thus, as early as last December, the authorities began dismantling a monument to the Soviet army in Sofia. The figure of a Soviet soldier was cut off the hand holding a PPSh rifle, one of the main weapons during the fight against the Nazis.

The bronze figures, which were installed in the centre of Sofia in 1954 as a tribute to the “Soviet Liberator Army”, were also cut into pieces. Earlier, the head of the Sofia district administration, Traicho Traikov, said in an interview with Bulgarian National TV that the Soviet Army monument in Sofia allegedly “has serious structural defects, poses a danger to others and should be dismantled for restoration”.

The decision to dismantle it was taken by the Sofia City Council in 1993, but due to protests from supporters of the Bulgarian Socialist Party the work had to be stopped. However, Sofia deputies in March again by a majority vote supported the initiative of right-wing political associations to dismantle and relocate the Soviet Army monument.

Other examples include attempts to dismantle the “Alyosha” monument in Plovdiv, as well as preparations to reissue history textbooks in order to remove from them facts that generate “appreciation for Russia”. Bulgarian Defence Minister Todor Tagarev, one of the most active promoters of the country’s current pro-Western course, said at the time that it was necessary to purge from the textbooks “facts that could generate appreciation for Russia”. The initiative seems likely to touch on events such as Russia’s liberation of Bulgaria from the Ottoman yoke in 1878 and from the Nazis in 1944.

Lack of sovereignty

Many attribute the country’s current political course to a lack of national sovereignty, while state policy is based on following orders coming from Brussels and Washington, even if this is contrary to Bulgaria’s national interests.

For example, Bulgaria does not protest the construction of the largest European NATO military base in neighbouring Romania. The construction of the Mihail Kogilniceanu base is aimed at “defending the alliance’s southeastern flank against Russia,” which could aggravate the already tense relations between NATO and Russia and lead to an escalation of the conflict.

It is located just 20 kilometres from the Black Sea coast, 300 kilometres from Odessa and 400 kilometres from the port of Sevastopol in Crimea, which was recently attacked by the AFU with US-made ATACMS missiles.

Military experts note that Romania, unlike Bulgaria, managed to take advantage of the first months of the military conflict in Ukraine to modernise its army. Thus, Romania replaced old Soviet armaments with more modern NATO armaments, while Bulgaria still lacks a serious Alliance presence, as in Romania or Albania.

Today, however, if the Bulgarian government chooses to continue its pro-European and pro-NATO policies, it risks not only losing the last support of its people, but also dragging the country into a larger armed conflict. By accepting the actions of the authorities, the Bulgarians are not only leading their homeland into a full-scale crisis, but also betraying the memory of their ancestors by denigrating the merits of Russia in their independence and liberation from the Ottoman yoke and the fascists.