Rumen Radev has defeated Boyko Borissov in a landslide unprecedented in the country’s modern politics
Former Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has defeated former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov by 30 points in Bulgaria’s general election, according to preliminary exit polls.
With some 96% of votes counted, Radev’s Progressive Bulgaria coalition has won 44.7% of the vote, followed by Borissov’s GERB-SDS at 13.4% and caretaker Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov’s PP-DB at 12.9%.
The strongly EU-skeptical party Varazhdane (V-ESN) has won 4.3$ of the vote.
These results are closely in line with exit polls, with Alpha Research predicting that Radev would take 44.2%, and Borissov’s party would come in second place at 13.4%.
The election was the country’s eighth in five years, and another flashpoint in the battle between staunchly pro-EU and sovereignist political forces in Europe. In a final pre-election message to his supporters, Borissov reassured voters on that his party would provide “full support to Ukraine.”
Radev has vowed to balance relations between East and West, promising to build a “modern European Bulgaria,” while developing “practical relations with Russia based on mutual respect.”
Radev, who opposes EU aid to Ukraine, has also vowed to break the stranglehold of the “oligarchic mafia” on Bulgaria.
A former fighter pilot who served as Bulgaria’s president between 2017 and 2026, he clashed with Borissov during their overlapping stint in power, backing the 2020 anti-corruption protests that led to Borissov’s downfall.
Just as it did in Hungary last weekend, and in France, Germany, Moldova, and Romania beforehand, the EU activated its ‘Rapid Response System’ in Bulgaria. This suite of online censorship tools gives the European Commission the power to remove so-called “disinformation” from social media platforms during the election.
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