20/04/2026
Bulgarians voted decisively on Sunday for politicians promising change and a crackdown on corruption, delivering a blow to the center-right party that had dominated for the last decade.
Former President Rumen Radev, leader of a new coalition, Progressive Bulgaria, claimed an “uncontested victory” in comments to journalists outside his party headquarters two hours after voting had ended.
Polling agencies reported that the coalition was leading with up to 45 percent of the vote and might be heading for a majority of seats in Parliament. The results remain incomplete and the official count is expected Monday, but the size of Progressive Bulgaria’s win appeared to be the largest seen in Bulgaria in years.
“It’s a victory of hope over desperation, freedom over fear,” Mr. Radev said. “A victory, I’d say, of morale, because people rejected the arrogance of old parties and didn’t bend to their lies and manipulations.”
The party of the former prime minister, Boyko Borissov, Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria, or GERB, which resigned in the face of the protests in December, was pushed into second place with a much reduced portion of the vote.
And an alliance of liberal opposition parties called We Continue the Change — Democratic Bulgaria, which spearheaded mass protests in December that had brought down the government, made significant gains, coming in a close third with 13 to 14 percent.
Both Progressive Bulgaria and We Continue the Change-Democratic Bulgaria have campaigned on plans to fight the stranglehold of corruption that Mr. Borissov, together with another powerful politician, Delyan Peevski, leader of a small party, DPS, have maintained over Bulgaria’s institutions.
“In the new Parliament, there will be a strong anti-corruption majority,” Daniel Smilov, a professor of political science and the program director of the Center for Liberal Strategies at the University of Sofia, wrote in emailed comments after the polls closed.
With its citizens yearning for the kind of prosperous life enjoyed by other Europeans, Bulgaria held its eighth election in five years.
