April 20, 2026
Bulgaria is getting some breathing space and will be able to stabilize institutionally, thanks to the fact that a majority will appear in parliament.
This was noted by Democratic Initiatives Foundation analyst Marianna Prysyazhnyuk on the air of Espresso.
“The first conclusion I would like to draw is that, perhaps, it is positive that a majority will finally appear in the Bulgarian parliament, because my, in fact, colleagues from Bulgaria, with whom I consulted, communicated on the topic of recent events, call their democracy dysfunctional, non-functional. Because we know that eight elections have been held in the last five years and Bulgaria is constantly in such a turbulent crisis, the political players are so motley, they cannot agree with each other and form, in fact, a government. And therefore, such a stabilizing role of even this party with very dubious rhetoric, it seems to me to be a positive factor, because Bulgaria gets a certain respite and will be able to stabilize institutionally. This is the first,” she noted.
Marianna Prysiazhniuk noted that she would not rush to label Rumen Radev as the second Orban or a friend of Putin.
“Regarding the dubious rhetoric, actually, of Mr. Radev. I would not immediately label him as the second Orban or a friend of Putin, because I have a feeling that this topic of normalizing relations with Russia is becoming a trend in Europe and it is not necessarily some personal political position. Although, perhaps, this is not the case with Radev. And, by the way, Ukraine should be ready for this. And this is the same trend, if you remember in 2024 the far-right parties, it was fashionable among them, let’s say, who would stab Ukraine more sharply, who would demonize Ukraine more sharply, that is, there was such a trend then. Now it seems to me that the trend is more normalizing towards Russia. And, well, this is, of course, a threat of a more meta level, but it seems to me that the situation in Bulgaria is still closer to that. Regarding Radev himself, of course, he is a character who will annoy Ukrainian politicians, Ukrainian society in the future. His party was “It was launched two months before the elections themselves, and it’s actually a hodgepodge of, well, maybe not random people, but from the closest circle of some activists who share the vibes that Radev broadcast, including curtsy towards Russia,” she said.
The political analyst emphasized that during his presidency, Radev did not block security initiatives regarding Ukraine, although he had leverage.
“But I want to note that even as president, from 2017 to 2025, if I’m not mistaken in the dates, he had the leverage to block certain initiatives, including security initiatives with Ukraine. He did not do this. Although on the other hand, we remember such a dispute with Volodymyr Zelensky during his visit to Sofia, in 2023, when Radev publicly admonished the president of Ukraine, the president of a warring country that is being attacked by Russia, that we need to negotiate. At the same time, we did not see any blocking from the side of Bulgaria, even from the side of the president who had such leverage regarding the initiative of cooperation and support with Ukraine. Therefore, I think that, perhaps, at the rhetorical level, certain things will be said that we do not like, but on the other hand, we need to learn to work with this new trend. And it is not comparable to Hungary, you must agree, but the mood will change and moods will change both from what is happening in Ukraine and from the policy that the United States is promoting. And actually, countries that call themselves dysfunctional democracies will reflect on this. Therefore, this is a kind of mirror, a kind of micro-mirror of those world moods and general, perhaps, accents that concern different political circles and different layers of society. We saw all this during the campaign in Bulgaria. But it will stabilize,” added Marianna Prysiazhnyuk.
- On Sunday, April 19, 2026, Bulgarians went to the polls for the seventh time in five years to vote for a new parliament, known in the country as the People’s Assembly. With 100% of the votes counted, the party of pro-Russian ex-president Rumen Radev won.
We’ll just have to wait and see what awaits us with this dude. This would be wholly irrelevant if the EU weren’t such a pathetically weak institution.