The formation of former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev came first in the eighth parliamentary election in five years on Sunday, according to exit polls, but without securing a majority.
Radev, who resigned as president in January, ran on a pledge to fight corruption after an anti-corruption drive sparked a long-running political crisis.
The EU’s poorest member has seen successive governments since 2021, when anti-corruption rallies ended the conservative administration of longtime leader Boyko Borisov.
Progressive Bulgaria came in well ahead of former Prime Minister Borisov’s conservative GERB party, which fell to around 16%, and the liberal PP-DB coalition with around 14%, according to two exit polls.
Radev, who has called for renewed ties with Russia and opposes military aid to Ukraine, served as president of the Balkan nation of 6.5 million people for nine years before leaving to lead the new center-left Progressive Bulgaria group of parties.
The former Air Force general has said that he wants to free the country from the “oligarchic model of government”. He supported renewed anti-corruption protests last year that toppled the last conservative-backed government.
Relations with Russia
After voting earlier in Sofia, Radev said Bulgaria has “a historic chance to break once and for all with the… oligarchic model”. He called for a “democratic, modern, European Bulgaria”.
He also said he hoped for “practical relations with Russia, based on mutual respect and equal treatment”.
Radev has denounced a 10-year defense deal signed last month between Bulgaria and Ukraine, which is fighting a full Russian invasion from 2022.
He has also opposed Bulgaria sending arms to Ukraine, although he has said he will not use his country’s veto to block EU decisions.
Borisov, who has ruled the country virtually uninterrupted for nearly a decade, has rejected suggestions that Radev brings something “new”.
After voting in his hometown of Bankya, outside Sofia, Borisov hailed his party for “an extremely pro-European position”, underlining its support for Ukraine and Brussels.
Bulgaria heads to the polls: Who is Radev and what is at stake?
Bulgarian voters go to the polls on Sunday in their seventh snap election since 2021,…
4 minutes
Lack of trust in politics has weighed on voter turnout, which fell to 39% in the last election in 2024.
But with Radev rallying voters, a bigger turnout is expected this time, according to analyst Boryana Dimitrova of polling institute Alpha Research.
Political parties had called on Bulgarians to show up at the polls, also to curb the influence of vote-buying.
The article has been updated.
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