Dialogue with Russia ‘must be restored’ – Bulgarian election winner

The winner of the Bulgarian parliamentary election, Progressive Bulgaria’s Rumen Radev, has called for dialogue with Russia to be restored. The former president has led the newly formed left-leaning populist party to a landslide victory on a platform of critical dialogue with Brussels and pragmatism towards Moscow.

Speaking to reporters after the first exit polls showed his party well in the lead, the EU-skeptic Radev said Bulgaria would remain “on its European path,” but argued that Sofia and the bloc both need “more critical thinking” in foreign policy.

“Ask [French President Emmanuel] Macron, the prime minister of Belgium, ask other European leaders, including [German] Chancellor [Friedrich] Merz, who said that this dialogue [with Russia] must be restored,” Radev stated, stressing that engagement is necessary to shape Europe’s future security architecture and to halt its deindustrialization. “If we want Europe to have real strategic autonomy… Europe must think very seriously about how it will secure its resources, because without energy resources we cannot talk about competitiveness,” he added.

Radev argued that the bloc has undermined itself by pursuing moral leadership in what he described as a world without rules, and now needs more practical policies.

According to interim results, with 96.4% of ballots counted as of Monday morning, Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria has secured 44.7% of the vote, far ahead of former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov’s long-dominant GERB-SDS at 13.4%, with caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov’s PP-DB trailing at 12.9%.

To form a government, a party or coalition must win at least 121 seats in the 240-seat National Assembly. Preliminary projections suggest Progressive Bulgaria has already cleared that threshold with an estimated 131-134 seats, enough to govern without a coalition.

Radev described the result as a “victory of hope over mistrust,” saying his party had overcome voter apathy, but acknowledged that distrust in politicians remains. He said he will comment on government formation or possible coalition talks after the final results are announced.

The vote marks Bulgaria’s eighth election in five years. The country has been in a state of political dysfunction with unpopular caretaker governments since 2021, when Borissov resigned amid corruption scandals. Although Progressive Bulgaria was formed less than two months ago, Radev is a veteran political figure, having served as president from 2017 until stepping down in January to run for prime minister, pledging to break the deadlock and tackle corruption.

A vocal critic of the EU’s Ukraine policy, Radev has opposed Bulgaria’s embargo on Russian energy, blocked a 2022 plan to send armored vehicles to Ukraine, and argued that there is no military solution to the conflict.