Elections in Bulgaria: Rumen Radev Will NOT Become the “New Orban”

Elections in Bulgaria: Rumen Radev will NOT become the “new Orban”.

In yesterday’s elections, former president Rumen Radev, who is considered pro-Russian, won outright; his party, “Progressive Bulgaria,” is taking close to 55% of the seats in parliament. However, Radev will NOT become the “new Orban”; there is nothing to worry about here.

Vitaly Portnikov explains this in his 8-minute video.

I’ll summarize the main points:

▪️For the first time in Bulgaria’s modern history, one party has won an outright majority, taking >50% of parliamentary seats. The other parties will not take part in forming the new cabinet.

▪️Radev is known for his pro-Russian statements and sympathies toward Moscow. However, before the elections he said that Bulgaria should not block the €90 billion loan to Ukraine, although it will not participate in it, just like Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia.

▪️Despite his outright victory, Radev does not have a constitutional majority (that is 2/3 of seats in parliament, as with Peter Magyar). This means Radev will have to rely on support from pro-European political forces to carry out economic reforms.

▪️Unlike Orban, Radev is a representative of left-wing political forces (as president, he represented the Socialist Party, the de facto successor to the Bulgarian Communist Party), which are not political allies of Donald Trump.

▪️Radev will be even more cautious than Fico. Fico did not have an outright majority; to create a coalition, he joined forces with far-right\ anti-Ukrainian forces whose position he is forced to take into account. Radev, however, has an outright majority and does not need partners to create a coalition.

\Yes, the left-wing socialist Fico is in a coalition with the far right, for those who did not know. The Kremlin is not about ideology; the Kremlin is about any political forces, even completely opposed to each other, that are ready to break Europe apart from within. - Ed.

▪️Moreover, the most radical pro-Russian party, “Revival,” will this time receive almost 3 times fewer seats in parliament than last time (only about 5.5% of seats, compared with 13.75% last time).

▪️Radev will need funding from EU funds in order to fulfill his promises of economic reforms. For that, his foreign-policy decisions must not contradict the EU’s course.

▪️Bulgaria’s military-industrial complex cooperates closely with Ukraine and is interested in continuing arms supplies. It will be difficult for Radev to go against the interests of his industrialists.

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For my part, I will add once again that not every Babis is an Orban. Everyone feared Andrej Babis’s victory in the elections in October 2025, but in the end Czechia did not even refuse the “Czech initiative” on supplies of artillery ammunition.