Battle for Bulgaria: The EU opens a new front in its election war

Though the Hungarian election is only a week away, another threat is already manifesting for the EU’s elite: This time in Bulgaria, where left-wing populist and former President Rumen Radev wants to shut off the money tap to Ukraine, and his opponents want Brussels’ censorship machine to save them. Here we go again.

On April 19, Bulgarians will vote in the country’s eighth parliamentary election in five years. Called after the resignation of Rosen Zhelyazkov following street protests in November, the election pits centrist Boyko Borissov – a former prime minister – and his pro-EU GERB-SDS coalition against the emerging left-leaning Progressive Bulgaria coalition, headed by Radev.

Who is Bulgaria’s Rumen Radev?

Radev served as Bulgaria’s president from 2017 until his resignation this January. He frequently clashed with Borissov during the latter’s tenure as prime minister, accusing him of incompetence and corruption – allegations substantiated in 2020 when an image of Borissov lying half naked on a bed next to a pile of money and a handgun spread on social media.

The Radev-Borissov rivalry would not concern Brussels if Radev wasn’t a vocal opponent of the EU’s Ukraine policy. Radev has opposed the bloc’s “self-destructive” sanctions on Russia since 2022, views a Ukrainian victory as “impossible,” opposes military aid to Kiev, and has declared that “ending the war in Ukraine requires more diplomacy and negotiations with Russia.” For a country with four NATO military bases and a ten-year defense deal with Ukraine, the issue is critical for Kiev’s backers.

With two weeks to go, Progressive Bulgaria is leading Borrisov’s GERB-SDS by ten points, according to a polling aggregate compiled by Politico. Faced with this outbreak of popular democracy that challenges its fundamental policy positions, the Bulgarian establishment has called for EU reinforcements.

Is the EU meddling in the Bulgarian election?